Just You, Me, and The Duck
by Aguilita Cruz
Summary: When an angry Aphrodite boy turns Annabeth into a dude, both Percy and Annabeth decide to fix things and go on a quest to gain all ingredients necessary for the reversal potion. But it seems like there is SOMEONE out there who doesn't want Percabeth to happen. Still not interested? Check the reviews, and see what other people think. Rated T for...well, STUFF.
1. This Will Get Fugly

**Annabeth: Wow, Itsi, another Percabeth!  
Me: I know. But this first chapter won't be so Percabeth-y. You know, since it's the intro?  
Annabeth: Whatever. Read and enjoy what Itsi has wasted 20 minutes to type, 10 minutes to correct, and zero seconds to check if she got my attitude right.  
Me: Jeez.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

My eyes opened up at 7:00 am. Yes, camp officially starts at 8:00 am, but the Athena cabin likes to get up early.

I got up from my bed and began to make it. As I did, I noticed my fingers looked…weird. Maybe a little more thick? I studied them for awhile, but then shrugged it off and finished making my bed.

As I walked to the bathroom, everyone stared at me. They stepped back when I passed by, and I gave them a _what? _look.

My heart dropped to my stomach. Did the Stoll Brothers mess with my face in my sleep? It sure as Hades wouldn't be the first time. So I ran to the bathrooms, but I remembered that even the bathroom mirrors are full of plastered-on plans and diagrams. I'm sure you know that our cabin has the walls completely used up by our Smart Boards and maps. No room for mirrors. Which I needed, _now._

Damn, I thought. Where can I find a mirror?

Duh. The Aphrodite cabin.

So I ran there as fast as I could, and then I was on the floor even before it even registered in my brain that I had crashed onto Clarrisse.

"Damn, boy, watch where you're going! Hey, I've never seen your face around here. " She growled.

"Haha, funny Clarisse." An idea popped into my head. "Hey- can you tell me if there's something funny with my face?"

Clarisse's face looked evil in the morning light. "There soon will be, new kid." She grabbed me by my shirt and started leading me away from the frilly pink cabin.

"Clarisse! Where are you freaking taking me?"

"Hey, I must be famous! New kid knows my name!" Ok, now I was confused. "This is how I welcome new demigods into my camp. Call it… a little initiation ceremony! "

By now, I noticed she was heading towards the bathrooms. Yeah, I've been through this before. She was about to give me a swirly.

"Clarisse! Let go! You're not funny! You of all people know I've been going here for years! It's me, Annabeth!" Was my face _that _messed up by the Stolls that Clarisse didn't even recognize me? Is that why everyone was so awkward around me in my cabin?

"Haha! Whatever! You? Annabeth? Quit kidding!"

I knew this was a lost cause, and started kicking and punching her to make her let go. A swirly would seriously mess up my already crappy day.

"What's your name, kid? I like to know the names of my victims."

I looked at her in the eyes. "Are you nuts?"

She shrugged as she opened a stall, but found a scared half-blood behind it, doing his business. She opened another one. "Hey, just 'cause I eat babies for breakfast and pick my teeth clean with their bones doesn't necessarily mean I'm nuts."

"I'm freaking Annabeth Chase!"

"Oh, yeah? Then what's her middle name?" I bit my tongue. Nobody must ever know…

"Just trust me!" Only then did I notice the deepness of my voice. From shrieking too much?

She bent me over a toilet bowl, and instead of me in my reflection, I saw a guy with curly blond hair and intense gray eyes. They mirrored the panic I felt as my face touched the disgusting water. She flushed the toilet, then brought my head back up, me coughing.

"Now seriously, what's your name?"

I glared as I coughed one more time.

"Clarisse, look at me. I AM ANNABETH CHASE."

Her eyes widened. "But-but…you're…."

I was exasperated, wet, cold, confused, and most of all, tired of this crap. I snapped, "I'm a what?" She flinched.

"You're a….guy."

These bathrooms _did have_ mirrors, so I ran to the nearest one, and, sure enough, a guy stared back instead of me. No more visits to the Land of Denial. The proof was all there. And- I was pretty hot. The face looking back could well as be my twin brother.

"Listen, Clarisse, I swear _on the River Styx_ that I am Annabeth. Something clearly happened, because I am completely a guy." She must have understood, because her eyes flicked below my waist for a second or two. She met my eyes again and blushed.

"Oh, the Fields of Punishment just froze over, Clarisse La Rue just blushed!"

Her face turned angry, then she said "Lord Ares, you got a sex change. We need to get him."

"Who, Percy?" I asked, maybe wondering if she meant Chiron.

"No, George Washing- YES, Percy!"

I nodded, but hating to imagine how he may react to my –gulp- sex change. But all those thoughts were completely eradicated from my head as I realized something.

"I have to pee," I announced, blushing.

Clarisse laughed. "Can't help you with that, girlie. You'll have to learn how to do that all by yourself."

Oh, this was getting fugly.

**Me: Bahahahahahahahaha! If only this really happened!  
Annabeth: Don't get freaky. You'd probably fall in love with me as soon as you saw me.  
Me: Nah, I'm immune to boys-  
Luke: Hey, girls.  
Me: *blush* H-hi, Luke.  
Annabeth: Immune, huh? Reviews= fuel, guys. So fuel up our passion for writing!**


	2. Stuffed Ducks From Hell

**Me: OK, so this chapter is dedicated to my first awesome author friend, Heartless demon wolf, whose LOOOOOOVES Percabeth.  
Annabeth: Minotaur crap.  
Me: Haha, yeah, in fact, he would vomit at even the thought of saying that. For him, it's Perlia forever. But it's still dedicated to him!**

**~Percy's POV~**

I woke up with that feeling. You know which one I'm talking about, the feeling like you just fell off something, even though you were just lying down, sleeping.

I stumbled out of bed blindly, and put on some shorts and a shirt. I stepped out of my cabin, and almost ran over a guy, which knocked me out of my half-awake state.

"Sorry, dude," I said. "Half awake, you know?"

This guy's face was intense. Blond hair, gray eyes, he looked like Annabeth so much I almost called him that. I've barely known this guy for 3 seconds, and already he'd think I'm weird for calling him by my girlfriend's name.

"Yeah, half awake. I know that feeling. Um…Percy, don't you recognize me?" the guy asked. I was about to ask him if I owed him any money until I saw Clarisse walk our way.

"Uh-oh, bro, if you're new, then I suggest you run. Clarisse there gives swirlies to new campers."

Clarisse stopped near us and grinned at the blond. "Yeah, she- he knows. Not even ten minutes ago, he tasted sewer water. Have a nice pee, by the way?" She directed the question to the blond guy. He glared at her in a way that reminded me of Annabeth. Maybe she had a new brother?

"Don't you know me?" the guy repeated again. My heart tugged at me, saying I did, but I seriously didn't recall seeing him before today.

I shook my head. "Sorry. Maybe my memory's starting to fail me?"

Then he surprised me by crying. He cried like some girls do, hands on his lips to cover them up. And then he surprised me even more: he threw himself into my arms.

I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the grass. I didn't know what to do! I don't know how to comfort people! I know, I know, I _should_ know, considering the life I lead, but still! Clarisse face palmed.

"Um, An- An….dy, Andy! Let go of Percy, you're creeping him out.

_No! No! _I mouthed. _Don't make me sound like a jerk!_ But Andy did pull away.

"S-sorry for that, Percy. It's just that-that I have to tell you something. Follow me to my cabin?" he asked, wiping his tears away. I nodded, silently willing Clarisse to come too. This guy looked like he could break any second, and I don't want to be alone when that happens.

He was leading us to the Athena cabin, so I was so totally right! This _is_ Annabeth's brother!

A thought. "Hey, um, Andy, have you seen Annabeth anywhere? I haven't, and that's weird for her not to check up on me, see if I'm still alive and all that."

He flinched like I just stabbed him in the heart. "Yeah, I have. She's not that far from here." We walked inside of the cabin, and immediately ALL conversations ended. At first I felt self-conscious, but then realized they stopped because of Andy.

He looked at Clarisse, who nodded, and screamed, "UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR UNDERWEAR TWISTED INTO A KNOT, THEN GET YOUR BUTTS OUT OF HERE IN TEN, NOT ELEVEN, BUT _TEN_ SECONDS!"

Wow, I have never seen this cabin move so quickly for something not Athena-kid related. It cleared out in five seconds.

"So," I started, "what do you need?"

Andy's eye twitched. "Percy, I- um, I'm…not…it's comp- uh, er…"

Clarisse groaned. "Percy, Andy is Annabeth. He is Annabeth!"

No. The. Hades. Way. The Fates can_not_ be that bored to mess with me like this.

But the scary thing was, I could really, _actually_ see it. Then, I flashbacked to just yesterday, and that weird Aphrodite kid:

**~Begin flashback~**

_I was walking over to the Aphrodite cabin to tell Piper that Jason had left on a quest earlier, so she wouldn't worry or something, when some boy came out. Short and with a face that would shame a male model. He was holding a stuffed ducky._

_I couldn't help myself, I laughed. He turned, his face annoyed. "What're you laughing at, _hero?" _he sneered._

"_Nothing, nothing. I-I wasn't laughing." Much._

"_Ah-ha! You were laughing at Mr. Quack, yeah?" Totally._

"_No! I wasn't laughing at- Wait, _Mr. Quack_? Seriously?" I started to laugh even more, even though I knew I shouldn't. It's just that….THE NAME!_

_His face screwed up in anger. "It's really manly to play with things like this. We make better husbands, we boys with stuffed animals."_

_I didn't think it was even possible to make me laugh any harder, but at that, I was practically telling him to stop, that it was too much._

"_You….ha-ha…keep telling yourself that! Hahaha!"_

_His face turned red, and that immediately made me stop laughing. I got this feeling something bad was going to happen. _

"_You'll see, Jackson! You'll see! I'll hit you where it hurts! You'll know how it feels!"_

**~End flashback~**

He did this! That weirdo Aphrodite boy! With the stuffed duck!

When I thought this last part, a stuffed duck appeared in And- I mean, in Annabeth's hands.

"Get rid of that!" I yelled. Annabeth threw it with all her might and it sailed far away. But about three seconds later, guess what popped back into her hand? It's like the stuffed duck from Hades! Clarisse grabbed it and threw it, too, but it just appeared back in my girlfriend's hand.

"Oh, Poseidon! Annabeth! I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" I explained everything to her, and then Annabeth ran to me and began to sob. My strong Annabeth, who never sobs, not even facing death, reduced to tears because of this stupid curse.

Aphrodite kid is going to pay.

**Annabeth: That's right, not even facing death.  
Me: I was totally kidding. You cried like a baby when you went to the movies with me to watch The Lorax.  
Annabeth: You promised not to tell anyone!  
Me: I didn- Oh, yeah, we're on the Internet...oops. My bad...**


	3. A Recipe and A New Companion

**Me: Whoop! Whoop! Chapter 3! Crap's going dooooown!  
Annabeth: If only you got this excited for your homework.  
Me: Bah! Who needs homework when you have stories to update?  
Annabeth: *sigh* Who needs voices in your head when you have Itsi the Idiotic Authoress as a companion?  
Me: Heyyyy…..**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

Blegh. I hate crying. I really do. But earlier I cried twice: once when Percy didn't recognize me, and then when I found out who turned me into…into a _guy_.

As soon as I managed to completely compose myself, I looked at Clarisse and Percy. "Ok, let's go and find this kid to fix me. Percy, you learned your lesson, right? Just like he wanted?"

He nodded. "Yep. Turning you into a guy with a stuffed duck haunting you absolutely did. Let's roll."

"Wait!" I shouted. Clarisse sighed. "What now? Changed your mind? Decided to play for the other team?"

"What? NO!" Typical Clarisse! "I just want you guys to swear you won't tell anyone who I really am. Please guys, they'll feel pity on my, and you know I hate pity. It's okay to tell Chiron, but anyone else? No, please."

"Not even your own cabin?" Percy asked.

"No! Especially not them!"

"Why not? They're your siblings! They'll still see you as their tough leader that needs no pity."

"Just…don't, okay? Clarisse, please go to the Big House and tell Chiron what happened. Percy and I have to visit the Aphrodite Cabin."

"Whatever," Clarisse said, turning.

"I'm serious, Clarisse. JUST Chiron. Not even Mr. D-"

"O-KAY! Jeez, woman, I _get_ it!" She turned and left.

I looked at Percy. "Like you said, let's roll."

~Didn't Know How To Make A Line Break So I Made My Own C:~

"No."

"No? What do you mean no? I freaking learned my lesson! Just like you wanted!"

"Yes, I can see that."

"By the Gods, then WHY am I still a guy?" I asked/yelled.

"Because- because I don't know how to reverse the spell."

Percy was about to grab the guy by the shirt, but I beat him to it.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"What's my name?"

"Yes. What is your name?"

"Riley…." I frowned. "…ma'am."

I squinted my eyes at him. "Well, answer me this, Riley: how do you know how to put a spell on me, but you don't know how to remove it?"

He gulped, and I let him go. The he answered "I thought Jackson would take longer to feel sorry, so I wasn't worried about asking for the reversal potion ingredients from my mother."

"What?" Percy asked.

"Well, I put the sex change potion into whatever Annabeth was eating at the time."

_Oh, gods, I _thought _that Ben and Jerry's Late Night Snack Ice Cream tasted funny._

"But now, I think I have an idea. I can still make a potion to make it all better. Let me just iris-massage my mother so she can give me the recipe."

He went inside the cabin. While we waited, Piper looked out the window and smiled. She waved at Percy, but not at me, since I look like a new kid.

A few minutes later, Riley came out and handed us a piece of paper with the ingredients scrawled on it.

"Cool. Get on with it, Riles. We'll be right here when you have it done," Percy said.

Riley frowned at the stupid nickname. "No. I gave you the recipe so YOU can find them. You started this, you fix it. When you have them all, come see me to fix it up. Ta-ta." And with that, he left.

We looked at each other, then at the paper:

Magical Donkey Ears x2  
Lock of Gorgon Hair x2  
Web of Giant Spider x1  
Lotus Hotel and Casino Lotus Flower x3  
Harpy Feather x4  
Empousa Finger x5

Percy swore. "Magical Donkey Ears? Lotus Flowers? They had those? I don't remember them."

"ANNABETH!" I turned and saw a black clad figure hurl itself at me. When we hit the floor, I realized it was Thalia.

"Oh! I'd recognize you even if you turned into a boy! It's true! I didn't want to believe it, but it's true!"

"Thalia! Get off! Your knee is hurting a sensitive place!"

She got off me, and I gingerly rubbed my sore spot, but then quickly stopped, because it looked weird.

I glared at Clarisse. "Is it your fault she knows?"

She put up her hands. "Hey! Hey! Her nosey self listened to mine and Chiron's conversation. It's not all my fault, I didn't see her there."

Thalia shrugged. "I'm here, girl. I see you have the ingredients for the reversal potion or whatever. I'll join you to help find them."

"Good, we'll need all the help we can get." Percy, Clarisse, Thalia and I are going to find all of these items, and sort this out.

"It's looking like a quest, huh?" Percy asked. We all nodded.

And what is the first step to starting a quest?

Yeah. The prophecy.

**Me: Wait, wait. I need to write a prophecy?  
Annabeth: Yes!  
Me: AGH! Noooo! Does it have to rhyme?  
Annabeth: Not necessarily.  
Me: Phew. Then this'll be cake.**


	4. It's Prophecy Time

**Me: AAAAAUUUUUUUGH. This prophecy almost killed me. So appreciate it, guys, and review, please.  
Annabeth: And thanks for the eight reviews that popped up in Itsi's email while we were gone.  
Me: Yep. We love you for that. Well, _I_ do. Annabeth tolerates you.  
Annabeth: Don't listen to her, I love you guys too. Now, in other news, please read **_**Hugs6**_**'s story, The Leo Valdez Show!, which Itsi and I would appreciate.  
Me: A lot. A LOT. A LOT.  
Annabeth: Stop creeping out the readers!**

**~Percy´s POV~**

Oh, yes. I could tell Annabeth did not like this. She was wringing the neck of the evil stuffed duck like she was pretending it was Rachel´s neck. Thalia didn´t like it either, but that´s because Rachel´s cave was so high up.

Chiron was with us too, his tail swishing nervously from side-to-side. I was feeling kinda nervous too. If this isn´t considered ˝quest˝ material, then there will be no way to sort this mess out.

We entered through the velvet curtain, and found Rachel drawing on a huge pad.

˝Oh, hey, ˝ she said, smiling, but then noticed that none of us smiled back.

˝Lemme guess, you need a prophecy.˝

I nodded half-heartedly. ˝Sorry, ˝ I said.

"It´s okay, whatever. One prophecy, hopefully coming right up."

It took awhile, maybe 5 minutes, since everybody knows prophecies don´t come exactly when you want them to. Rachel was just about to give up.

"Sorry, gu-"she started, but she suddenly doubled over, then straightened up quickly. She opened her mouth, and wisps of green fog floated out of it. She seemed to float, her hair raised up like she just touched a light socket. Her eyes had been closed, but when she opened them, it was like a sonic _boom_! We were all thrown against the wall of the cave, which was bumpy and, duh, hard.

She pointed at Annabeth, and said "_Approach, seeker, and ask, for I am the Oracle of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python._"

Annabeth got up slowly from the floor, and with her new deep voice, asked "What is my destiny?"

Rachel took a deep breath, or maybe it was a sigh:

_Precarious train, pizza transporter,_

_You shall head west to reinstate order._

_ A web of lies spun,_

_ The traitorous games begun._

_ What you seek will fix your love,_

_ But you will be betrayed by the one of the dove._

Then Rachel collapsed on the floor. Clarisse helped her up, and Chiron put on a forced happy face.

"Well, clearly, Annabeth, this _is_ a quest. Now choose two companions."

Her face dropped. "No, Chiron. I need all three of them; Percy, Clarisse and Thalia have to go with me."

"Don´t forget what happened when FIVE people went to go rescue you and Artemis, Annabeth."

"Yes, yes, I _know_. Only_ three_ came back. We´ve had this chat before!" Anyone who knows Annabeth knows what she looks like when she´s about to raise her stubborn meter. And here it was. Thankfully, Chiron saw it too.

"Fine, child, fine. I hope _all_ of you know what you are doing."

"We do," we all said.

"Psh," Clarisse said, "we can handle ourselves, Chiron. So don't worry your pretty little face."

"An…Annabeth? Is that you?" We all turned to Rachel, who looked like a hurricane, a semi, and some cattle had all just decided to run her over simultaneously. And then fell off a mountain. Twice.

"Yeah, it´s me, Rachel." Annabeth knelt close to Rachel, who touched Annabeth´s face.

"This face….it will cause problems. Beware of females, Annabeth. You are a man now, and at the age of sixteen, no less. Pubescent girls will be all over you, and will delay you on your quest. It may not have a deadline, but your spirit will grow accustomed to being male, and I´m sure you don´t want that."

Annabeth shook her head, then said "Thanks, I guess."

"May the gods be with you on your quest, demigods. Now, be off."

"Wait, Chiron, one of the items on the list can be found right here," Annabeth said.

Thalia gasped. "Harpy feathers," she said.

I straightened. "To the underground kitchens!"

**Me: Why do I keep finding hair in my food?  
Annabeth: Pissed off any gods lately?  
Me: No, not recently.  
Annabeth: Are you sure…?  
Me: 99.9% sure.  
Annabeth: Itsiiiiiiii…**


	5. STUPID STUPID

**Me: Hey, where's Annabeth?  
Percy: She went shopping to buy you some shoes. So for now I'm your co-host.  
Me: Nooooo! Why you? And why new shoes? I have these right here!  
Percy: Exactly. Anyway, read and review, and all that…  
Me: I still hate you for running me over with Paul's car….  
Percy: That was in your other story! Let it go!  
Me: I'm a Mexican. I hold grudges.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

I know I shouldn't be jealous. I mean, yeah, she's the Oracle, who can't date or marry, but…..I just can't help it. Sometimes, when she thinks I'm not looking, Rachel looks at Percy like she made a huge mistake becoming the speaker of prophecies.

Thalia thinks I'm paranoid, but I _know_ it's true. My eyes don't lie.

Anyways, we found ourselves outside the entrance to the underground kitchens, where harpies make the food, and then later clean the dishes and all that.

"Okay, so which of us will risk our lives to pluck…" Percy checked the list, "…four harpy feathers from the butt of one of our _beautiful _lunch lady/vulture hybrid friends?"

"Hehe, this'll be cake," Clarisse said, rolling her shoulders.

"All right, Clarisse and I will go," I said.

But then I looked at the getup we were supposed to wear while in the kitchens: asbestos gloves and masks. This….was going to be difficult. But better safe than sorry, right?

"Let's do this thing," Clarisse said, her voice sounding nasal through the mask.

We entered the kitchens. Immediately, we saw a bunch of harpies running back and forth, with stacks of plates, getting prepared for lunch time, which was about two hours away. I tightened my grip on the duck.

One unlucky harpy decided to walk past me. I nonchalantly stepped in front of her, then signaled Clarisse to get the damn feathers and move!

She got it. She dove for the feathers, grabbing hold of more than necessary, and the monster squawked angrily. It turned and ran into Clarisse, who dropped the feathers in surprise.

By now, all the harpies at once decided that we wanted to steal ALL their feathers, so they clucked and screeched and flew at us.

"No!" Clarisse screamed, as I was completely ignored and she drowning in a gigantic pile of plumage and hair nets. I tried to pick up some feathers off the floor, the ones that STUPID STUPID Clarisse dropped, but the STUPID STUPID stuffed duck took up too much space in my left hand and wouldn't let me pick anything up!

The only way to get feathers was to grab them tightly, and have a friend pull some feathers out. Any other way, and we're screwed.

"Ah! Ah! This-is-not-cake! Gah! Annabeth! Helllp!"

Well, well, two things that Clarisse would never do, done in one day.

"Annabeth! You idiot, help me! Stop using your brain and use your legs!"

Oh yeah, I totally forgot. "Sorry, I can't! Getting feathers here! Keep distracting them!"

"They're freaking tearing up my mask!"

Sweat was running down my face. This is only the first task, and already I want to go to my cabin and lie down! NOW what do I do?

*light bulb*

"Push them off you, and RUN!"

"What about the feathers?"

"Just do it! I have a plan!"

Nothing happened for a few seconds. I thought she died or something. Then, like a tidal wave, the harpies were thrown off Clarisse, who started for the door. And she was bleeding. It looked like the harpies bit off some of the gloves, and maybe some skin, too. Already.

As a harpie flew by me, I grabbed her and ran to my friends, outside. Which, believe me sounds easy but it wasn't. She struggled like a stubborn soul escaping the grip of the grim reaper. I hoped the duck would calm her down –_hey, a feathered friend!- _but I've been wrong before.

Once outside, Clarisse put her arms around the harpie, whose name tag said _Hi! My name is Cesca!_

"Quickly! Grab some feathers and let's split!"

Thalia got a handful and quickly but carefully pulled. Still, Cesca squawked and screeched.

Percy took her back, apologizing to her every step of the way.

I took out the Ziplock bag for our ingredients, and grabbed the feathers with my duck-free hand. Thalia got six of them, but I out them inside anyway.

When Percy returned, a crowd gathered around us. Chiron clopped toward us.

"What has happened here?"

I smiled. "We just crossed off an item on our list."

**Annabeth: I'm baaaack! *finds Itsi and Percy strangling each other* Guys!  
Me: …and your hair is ugly too!  
Percy: …and you need to fix those ugly glasses!  
Annabeth: GUYS!  
****Me: Oh, Percy! I love your hair!  
Percy: Your glasses are so stylish!  
Annabeth: I thought so….**


	6. Sailor Percy and the Giant Spider

**Me: Today's chapter was brought to you by: PERV AWAY!  
Leo: Hello! Do you have pervert problems? Are pervs naturally or unnaturally attracted to you, and you don't like it? Then get- PERV AWAY! It keeps all those UNWANTED pervs…..AWAY!  
Me: And all those WANTED pervs close, hehe. You know what I mean...  
Leo: For a can, call one-eight hundred-  
Me: Sorry, that's all the time we have!  
Leo: Wait! Noooooooooo!**

**~Percy's POV~**

***Four Days Later***

_In my dream, I was a sailor. _

_I stopped at an ancient city, and was relaxing on the beach, all by myself. Until, though, I noticed some cliffs. And on those cliffs, a screaming girl. I climbed those cliffs, and reached where the girl was. She was blonde, with eyes like the stormiest clouds. And she was as naked as the day she was born. But all I could look at was her face. This was Annabeth. She was chained and nailed to a rock._

_I had to save her. I broke the chains with my hands as the sun set. She began to whimper, and I realized the sun was hurting her. So I covered her up with my body, making sure that no rays touched her skin._

_We stayed like that until the sun was completely gone, and I backed away from her, looking up at her face. She reached up, or tried to, but remembered that her hands were nailed to the rock. She looked at me, took a deep breath, and tore her hands free, the nails still on the rocks._

_I rushed to her, and checked her hands. _

"_Don't worry," she said, and when I looked up from her hands, she kissed me. _

_I closed my eyes for a second. She pulled away, and for some reason that made me sad. I opened my eyes, and screamed._

_There stood a naked young man about my age, naked with bloody hands._

And that's when I woke up.

I sat up straight, with Thalia, Clarisse, and Annabeth staring at me.

"Were…..were you just MAKING OUT WITH MY LEG?" Clarisse asked me.

What? "No!" Maybe. Clarisse's leg had a hickie on it.

"When we get back to camp, I'm going to _kill you_ and _bury you_ where everyone can step on your grave." With that, she kicked me squarely in the nose, scooted far away from me, and promptly fell asleep.

"What were you dreaming about?" asked Annabeth, wringing her duck's neck.

"Ummmm…..My Little Pony? Friendship is Magic?"

Thalia was obviously not convinced, and Annabeth looked worried. I was worried about myself. Both scooted a little farther, and lay down to sleep.

Once they were asleep, I face-grounded, and wished the ground could swallow me up.

The next morning, we reached Pencilvania, or however you spell it. Everyone was tired, so we decided to hitch a ride. But who was willing to give four grubby kids a ride to the west? Yeah, that's what I thought.

"Hey guys," Thalia said. "Look. A train. Says it's headed to Oklahoma. Let's go."

As we got closer and closer, the train looked crappier and crappier. The wheels? Rusty. The cabs? Poor condition. The rest? Spray painted.

I read what someone had written on the closest cab to us, and Annabeth pulled out some gum. "Dirty mouth? Clean it with ORBIT!"

I frowned at her. (Him? Agh!) I took a piece anyway, though.

We went inside the cab, and hunkered down. Thalia smiled nervously.

"This isn't that bad. Lookit, I brought some tunes, to use kind of like a soundtrack to our quest."

"Who brings an iPod to their quest?" Clarisse asked.

Thalia stuck her tongue out like as if it was a rude gesture, and put the buds on, checking for appropriate songs for our quest.

The train began to move slowly, and then all of a sudden, quickly, so I had to grab on to Clarisse's arm to balance myself and to keep a comfortable position. She growled in my face, so I decided I was going to suffer less pain if I just sat uncomfortably until the train's movements stopped getting so wild. (Never.)

I fell asleep after awhile (a feat in itself) but was oh so rudely awakened by a hyperventilating stranger dude. Oh, no, wait, it was just Annabeth.

"P-Percy, I th-think you shoullllllll…" She didn't continue, because whatever was scaring her (him? Agh!) finally froze her in fear.

The thing was lurking in the darkest corner of our cab. What about Thalia and Clar-

Ho-ly Poseidon, it had already gotten them. Maybe in their sleep. They had bite marks on their necks, like, DOG-size bite marks.

The train turned a little, so the moonlight shone onto the dark corner.

When my brain registered what lay beyond me, I bit back a scream.

Spider bites. They were spider bites. My eye twitched.

Staring back at me was THE MOST GIGANTIC SPIDER MY EYES HAD EVER SEEN.

**Me: DUN-DUN-DUN. This chapter was inspired by the HUGE spider I saw in my bedroom not long ago.  
Leo: It was the size of A DIME.  
****Me: EXACTLY. Huge, right?  
Leo: ….Yeah. Now, a question to all you awesome, amazing, stunning, beautiful…  
Me: Uhhhh…  
Leo: …..hot readers: Which god would you HATE to be your parent? Like, HATE SO BADLY? Don't worry; your responses will be kept completely confidential from the gods.  
Me: Unless they look at the reviews. So…..bye for now!**


	7. Rooftop Party! Not

**Annabeth: Where's Percy? He was just here a minute ago.  
****Me: Ever heard of Chinese Water Torture?  
Annabeth: Itsi, you DID NOT!  
Me: He dissed my glasses, Annabeth! What else could have made my revenge sweeter?  
****Annabeth: I gotta go save him before he goes completely insane!  
Me: Tootles! Now that she's gone, I have important news. I keep getting suggestions to add a soundtrack to this story, so I did. From now on, whenever you see bold typing in the middle of the story, that's the music playing in the background. You don't have to listen to them, but if you do, I'll remember your name when there's an extra seat next to my throne in the Underworld. Now, enjoy the story.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

Fear. Probably the most dangerous adversary one will ever face. But many conquer it with courage. Which is why I was completely frozen in fear. Cause, well, I was completely lacking it.

It appeared out of nowhere, which may seem impossible, considering the spider's size, but it totally did. I was hugging the stupid stuffed duck, staring at the moonlight, awed by its beauty, when I heard a series of weird noises.

_Rollllllll taptaptap. Rollllll taptaptap. Rollllllll taptaptap._

Then, it emerged. It was large, the size of a humvee, with pink and green…fur….or skin….or whatever. And its eyes! Plain ugh!

The noises woke Clarisse up, and she growled. Quietly, she reached over for her spear, when a hiss sounded. It seemed like nothing happened, but then Clarisse gasped, held her wrist, then over-salivated. She fell over, and I had the sudden urge to pee. Like, one of those pees you take after you've seen something awful.

The sound of Clarisse passing out woke Thalia up. "What's up?" she asked groggily.

I tried to point at the nightmare-come-true. "Spi-i-i…"

She turned where I pointed.

"Holy **(insert cuss word of choice here)**!" She rolled closer to her pack, with Aegis inside it. I thought this spider was a goner, but as soon as she reached over, the spider struck at her wrist, leaving a huge bite mark. She convulsed, and her mouth flooded with saliva. I'm surprised I didn't ruin my shorts then and there.

My mind flooded with information: I didn't think that there were huge spiders in Greek Mythology, but that didn't mean that I couldn't figure out its weaknesses. I noticed it only struck out when wrists were exposed.

I scooted towards a sleeping Percy, and without exposing my veins, tried to shake him awake. He didn't wake up, so I hit him with the duck, and he came to.

Now, let's skip forward a little, I'm sure Percy told you what happened a little after that.

He nodded, and quickly stepped over Clarisse. Just as quickly, the spider reached a long leg over, and flicked it at Percy. He caught it in the chest, and was thrown at the ceiling. Remember, this train was in a crappy state, so when Percy hit it, the ceiling broke away, exposing the stars.

**(Que: Discord by Eurobeat Brony)**

The spider repeated it's attack, Percy not anticipating it, and flung him out of the hole.

"Percy!" I screamed, shocked out of, well, shock, and rocketed to the hole before the spider had a chance to crawl through first.

That was when I first realized how fast we were going, exactly. I couldn't see Percy through my tearing eyes. The ADHD part of me imagined that if I was still in my own body, I would still have long hair, and looking for Percy would be so much more difficult with my hair getting in my face.

I heard a strangled cry, and I looked over to my left.

There, hanging by Riptide, was Percy.

"Heeeeelp!"

SCREEECH!

I turned around too fast, getting a head rush. My grip on Percy's hand loosened a little.

"Agh! Annabeth! Don't- whoa!- do that!"

The spider was now on the roof of the cab with Percy and I.

_Hey, you're not invited to this roof party!_

The monster raised its leg to lash out, and I steeled myself for the impact, tightening my grip on my boyfriend's hand. Maybe it's the last time we will ever hold hands again.

It swung its leg in the direction of the hole, so when it connected to my face (ouch), I was thrown to the right, and fell right back inside the hole, but not before letting go of his hand so he could be safe(ish) and sound(ish) on the roof.

My face stung like crazy, and I'm sure it was bleeding and oozing Apollo-knows-what, but my first priority was checking on the girls. I got up, thankful that I had landed on the duck-demon, because it helped make the fall a little more bearable. Clarisse was gaining consciousness again, and her hand was a sick green color, but other than that, she was ok. I found some ambrosia and fed it to her, and soon, she was well enough to feed Thalia some.

"Here, Wisegirl," Clarisse said, handing me the last piece of ambrosia in my pack.

As I reached for the ambrosia, I noticed that beyond my hand something was shining. Completely forgetting the pain and the godly food, I crawled over to investigate.

As I got closer, my smile widened.

"What?" croaked Thalia.

"Name me the items on the list."

"OK, Miss The Items On The List."

_Stupid, stupid spawn of Ares._

"Kidding, kidding. Umm….ok, magical donkey ears, lock of gorgon hair, giant spider web, Lo-"

"Stop. Look" I gestured to the shiny stuff.

"Whoa-ho-ho! A giant spider web!"

"Grab it and stuff it in a Ziplock bag."

"Sure, whatever, boss lady."

I felt like…like there was something missing. Something important.

"Annabeth?"

I turned to look at Thalia. "Yeah?"

"Where's Percy?"

I froze. Freaking hell, where _was_ he?

**Me: Since Annabeth went to rescue Percy, guess who joined?  
Leo: Me!  
Me: Hey, Leo, guess what?  
Leo: Huh?  
Me: I found out what Charles Martinet looks like!  
Leo: Who's Charles Martinet?  
Me: *dies and goes to The Fields of Punishment*  
Leo: Uh…..oh.  
Annabeth: I'm ba- hey, where's Itsi?  
Leo: She died.**


	8. Along Came a Hobo

**Me: My cousin is really gross.  
Frank: Why?  
****Me: He just kissed me on the lips the other day.  
Frank: Aha, sick! How old is he?  
Me: Five. SO, how you been?  
****Frank: Five- I MEAN….fine.  
Me: You and Hazel doin' good?  
Frank: Let's begin the story now.  
Me: Small chapter, guys, sorry.**

**~Percy's POV~**

Now, swear you won't tell anyone, but as I hung on for dear life, with the only thing saving me being Riptide, I think I messed up my pants. Just a little.

When Annabeth was thrown back inside, I was hauled back up., so I was face-to-face with the Godzilla/monster/spider again.

SCREEEEEECH!

Like an arrow, it zipped towards me. Luckily, my battle instincts kicked in and I side-stepped, slashing off one of the thing's legs. I jumped forward to the cab in front of me, and, of course, it broke, so I fell through and face-planted on the dusty floor. I rolled over, and through the Percy shaped hole, I saw the spider trying to get in. It couldn't, because the hole was too small.

I scooted closer to the wall, and the wall said "Ouch!"

Wait, walls don't talk! I jumped back to my feet in fright, and saw a hobo staring sleepily at me.

"S-sorry, I-I didn't know this car was in….use."

"Did you make that hole?"

_Please, please don't let my obit say "Killed by Angry Hobo"._

"Wait," he said, "better question: is THAT with you?" Hobo asked, pointing to the spider. I didn't know for sure, but wasn't this guy mortal? He shouldn't see that spider, should he?

Right then, the spider got a little smaller and stuck a leg through the hole, slashing at nothing and everything.

"Scoot back!" I yelled at the homeless man, and pushed him with my legs as far away from harm. Then I got up and stabbed the leg, making it fall off. So now this spider has about… six legs left, since I've slashed two off? Yeah.

"Percy? _Percy?_"

Was that a guy calling my name? Oh, yeah, Annabeth. Damn, I'll never get used to this.

"Another one of your friends?" the hobo asked.

Now, don't think I enjoyed this, but I hit him with the flat of my blade, and he hit the ground like a sack of baseballs. I guess I _may _have tilted the blade a little, cause a scarlet line appeared above his brow. I felt even worse, but this guy already knew too much. Maybe he'll wake up and think this was all a dream. Yeah, a dream where a psychotic teen slashes at you for asking questions.

Now, to get rid of the spider. What would Annabeth do, not counting the fact she's scared of spiders? Hmmm. I could see it trying to get in. How could I use that to my advantage?

That's when it hit me. Stab it through the hole! It was harder than it sounded, and it took me a long time to kill it, because it was also attacking through the hole, but finally my luck came back and I hit it in the soft spot. I was immediately covered in monster dust.

There isn't some giant spider in Greek Mythology, right?

I picked up the severed leg, and it morphed into a black dagger. Since I don't use those kinds of weapons, I was going to throw it away. But I heard my father whisper into my mind "_No, Perseus. Keep it. It might become useful soon."_

Ooooookay. So I put it in my pocket, since it was pretty small, and waited for my friends to join me. As I did, I looked at the blood on the hobo. The moonlight passed over it, and it seemed to make the blood look golden. Was this Apollo, maybe, trying to help us? In the disguise of a hobo again?

I sniffed him. Eugh! Apollo wouldn't have tried too hard to be convincing! Definetely NOT Apollo.

A shadow appeared through the hole, and jumped inside. Clarisse barely missed the bum's hand by an inch. Next came Thalia, not at all looking like someone who was recovering from a massive spider bite. Neither did Clarisse.

Annabeth was wearing that stupid grin that would always make my heart melt.

"What?"

"We just got item number two: Giant Spider Web."

I smiled, and it felt like I haven't done that in billions of years. And then Clarisse ruined the Hallmark moment by asking "Are your pants wet?"

**Me: H-hey, Frank, can fish haunt you?  
Frank: 'Course not! Why?**

**Me: M-my pet fish died.  
Frank: Aww, what was his name?  
Me: *begins to cry* SPADEITTI! I MISS YOU!  
Frank: Spadeitti? No wonder it died.**


	9. Being Irrational

**Me: ****Oh, man, my readers are the best. You all responded upon the death of...SPADEITTI... and made me feel better. *sniff*  
Clarisse:*Weirded out* O-o-o-o-okay. Movin' on. Hey, girlie, explain the prophecy to me. I don't get it.  
Me:*immediately stops crying* And you won't 'till it's revelation time.!  
Clarisse: TELL ME.  
Me: Or what? *smirks*  
Clarisse: *whispers things of unimaginable pain and suffering*  
Me: You guys read the chapter. I- uh- have some explaining to do.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

**(Gospel Truth 1, Disney Hercules Soundtrack)**

I first noticed the hobo when he pulled on my pants. We'd been talking about the prophecy, trying (and failing) to decode it.

"Ok, so…precarious train," Clarisse said. "That was the first thing, right?"

I nodded. "Yes. Precarious. Meaning insecure, risky. That, so far, is the only thing that makes sense. This train could fall apart at any second. We're good so far."

"And what's a pizza transporter?" Thalia asked.

"Another thing: Why is it always 'go west' or 'you shall go west'? Never 'go east', or 'go north' or 'go south towards Cancun' or something," Percy ranted.

Clarisse answered Percy's question. "Dude, we're demi-gods; the Fates hate us, so that's the way life has gotta be."

Percy frowned, and suddenly, I got a feeling. The back of my neck, the hairs on it, I mean, stood as straight as rulers. Something grabbed the back of my pants and was pulling on them. The first thing I could think to do was to grab the hand and pull on it. Then, I began to hit him with my duck. Oh, great, now I'm calling it _my_ duck. Eugh.

"Ack!" The perp yelped, and I turned to see who it was. It was a raggy man, hair all over his eyes, and a smell like garbage that was left out in the sun for _way_ too long.

"Oh, it's just that hobo I told you guys about," Percy said.

"That's weird. I didn't notice him before." I must be losing my touch. I turned to the hobo. "Sorry, you scared me. You grab my pants, I pull on your arm. Then beat you senseless with a stuffed animal."

He crawled towards us, and I noticed the blood on his forehead. It was still bleeding like crazy, which didn't make sense, since Percy said he didn't hit him that hard.

"Give…some..." he gestured to the ambrosia.

Uh-oh.

Percy, Clarisse and Thalia all tried to convince him that it was just food, but the bum kept gesturing to us that he wanted some. Even though they persisted that it was normal old food, he kept on pestering.

"Saw it heal...you."

Ok, I felt pity. Not only had I just abused him (with a _toy_), but I may have killed whatever dignity he had left. And plus, he was a hobo. He was probably going to die soon anyway, so I handed him some ambrosia.

"Here."

"No! Annabeth!" Percy howled and grabbed my wrist.

I looked at him in the eyes. "He might die soon anyways. It will be quick and painless."

He looked at me for a long time, but finally he let go and motioned for me to continue. "Okay."

Thalia took the food from Percy's hand and gave it to the man. He smiled weakly, and placed it in his mouth. I held my breath. Never usually get to see the death of a hobo, you know?

The bum's eyes rolled over, and he stopped breathing. Thalia sighed.

"Maybe, just maybe, he got a teeny taste of his favorite food before he kicked the metaphorical bucket? Like, _Yum! Beans in a can!_"

It was nice that she was trying to raise our spirits, but-

"Hey. Name's Ron. Ya'll can call me Ron the Bum. Or RTB, whatever."

I looked to see who was talking, then looked back to Percy, and did a double take.

It was the ho- I mean, Ron, completely healed, his legs criss-crossed and sitting in our circle like he was one of us.

Once gaining my ability of speech, I introduced the group, still a little perplexed, and the he asked if I could cut his hair a bit, so he could see us better. I did, and his eyes were finally visible. They were the second most beautiful eyes I had ever seen in my entire life. Second to Percy's, of course. He looked like a rugged Hugh Jackman, like as if Mr. Jackman decided that the posh life was too dull and started living in the streets.

I looked at Percy, and we seemed to agree; to keep this guy was to possibly save the life of a demi-god that never learned about camp.

I turned to see if everyone agreed, but Clarisse wasn't having it.

A little while after an awkward silence, RTB fell asleep, and Clarisse was fired up. "No way, no how. You know how it is! No camp? No training! Worse than a liability!"

"Why the sudden animosity? I thought you were a kindred spirit."

"Not kidding, Wise Girl." She paused. "Either he goes...or I go."

That last bit surprised me. "What?! Clarisse, what is _wrong_ with you?" The train suddenly stopped.

"Okay, take your homeless loser. I'm OUT."

"But Clarisse, you're being totally-"

"Irrational?" Clarisse completed the sentence for Thalia. "Not. On. Your. Life, Pinecone Face."

Thalia grabbed her shoulder. "Dang, Clarisse! It's just a friggen hobo!"

Clarisse looked back at Ron the Bum. "I have a bad feeling about him. Clarisse, out." And she walked out of the cab.

When we finally came to our senses _five billion years_ later, we got out too. She was nowhere in sight. I wanted to rip up the duck in frustration.

"Hey...where's that beefy girl that smells like sweat?" Ron asked, now awake. Our argument must have woken him up.

I sighed, looking at the rising sun.

**(Breakeven by The Script)**

"She...she had stuff to do," I responded, a little monotonously.

"Oh. Um, okay. So, where we headed?"

Percy looked at Thalia. She shrugged.

"Wherever the wind takes us."

**Me: Okay, so when Percy comes in, you shove him in a-  
Clarisse: Stopstopstop! They're done readin'!  
Me: IN A ROOM FULL OF HOT GIRLS. Hehe. Yup. That's what...we were planning...to doooooo. Hehe.  
Clarisse:*****smacks her face* Just read and review.**


	10. Oh Meh Gah!

**Me: ...  
Clarisse: Ummm...  
Me:...  
Clarisse: Where's that girl that always talks in the beginning?  
Annabeth: She's in her room, crying, because not many people have participated in her poll.  
Clarisse: ...What a weenie.  
Annabeth: Anyways, she left us instructions. "**Please mention to the readers Pokemonchen's really amazing story, called _The Big Three Daughters_**."  
Clarisse: Yeah, so read it, people, to make Pokemonchen really happy. What else?  
Annabeth: It also says "**Please don't tell the readers that I'm crying.**"  
Clarisse: ...  
Annabeth: Ooops. **

**~Percy's POV~**

We were in Oklahoma, which seems impossible, since the train ride seemed too short to take us from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma. We (and by we, I mean Thalia) found and "borrowed" a Yugo, and drove to a city called Tulsa.

We passed an old beat-up sign that said "Welcome to Tulsa," and Ron giggled like a jittery 10 year-old. "Hehe, Tulsa," he muttered.

"What the hell is so funny?" Thalia asked, thankfully keeping her eyes on the road.

"Spell Tulsa backwards, it's funny!"

"A-S-L-U-T."

Oh, haha. A slut. "Very funny, Ron."

"I know, right?" I didn't know if he was really that clueless, or he was just playing along.

Then I heard a sputtering, like…like the engine not working properly.

"Guys, I think the engine isn't working properly," Thalia said.

"Well, this _is _a Yugo." Annabeth said.

Then the car stopped. I banged my head of the back of the driver's seat in anger. This was going _very _well. Yes, nothing going wrong at all.

I opened my eyes, and what-ho? The sign Hercules Tires appeared in my line of sight. Never before has a sign looked as suspicious as this one.

_What? _It seemed to say. _I just happened to be here when you needed me._ I pointed it out, and Ron grunted.

"Coincidence? I think not."

**(So Hard, by Rihanna) **

Cold air blasted us as we entered, a portable radio playing Rihanna. We told the girl at the front desk what was up, and she nodded, barely looking up from her magazine. Jeesh, I thought these kind of girls only existed in movies.

"DAD! CUSTOMERS!" she screamed, and a reply came soon.

"WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

The girl, whose name tag said_ Gigi, _groaned. "I SAID, CUSTOMERS!"

"YOU WANNA GROW UPTO BE A BRAINSTORMER? GOOD LUCK!"

She got up, went to her father, and screamed "THERE ARE CUSTOMERS IN THE LOBBY!"

"Oh."

The man came out and asked us how he could help us.

We told him the rap.

He eyed us wearily. If Ron hadn't been with us, he probably would have called the cops and reported the stolen car. But he agreed to fix our car, muttering that we were lucky he knew how to fix Yugos, which were apparently rare-ish.

We sat down on some chairs, and I wondered what had happened to Clarisse to make her react like that, unnecessarily rude to Ron, a harmless hobo. Okay, yeah, a hobo that somehow can eat ambrosia, but still, totally unnecessary.

There was a ruffle of papers, and I took a moment to look up. The girl, Gigi, was totally ogling Annabeth. My eye twitched.

"_Oh. Meh. Gah_. _He's so hah." _

Ummm…translation, please?

Ron leaned over and asked me "Did that girl just say 'Oh my god, he's so hot?' Who is she talking about?"

I think I had an idea who she was talking about.

I whispered to Annabeth what just happened, and she frowned.

That's when Gig walked coyly u p to Annabeth and said, "Omigawd, like, you're soooo hawt. Can I have your numberrrr?"

Annabeth frowned again. "Sorry, umm..Gigi, but…I don't like…girls."

"What? You don't like girls like me? What's that supposed to mean?"

"No, I-"

"I'm _hawt!_ Why would you reject me? Am I not pretty enough? Huh? Is that it?"

Thalia got up, getting ready to stop a catfight. "Is _everyone _overreacting to _everything_?"

"Nobody rejects me," Gigi said. I did a double take when I looked at Gigi. Something looked…different about her.

She was in Annabeth's face, and behind her back, her hands were turning into claws.

I should have seen this coming. She's an empousa!

"Annabeth! Get away from her!" I got out Riptide, ready to fight.

Gigi saw my sword, and she smiled. "I _thought_ I smelled demi-god, but I guess I misjudged how far you were from my location. My boss told me to kill anyone who smelled like demi-god."

She lunged herself at Annabeth, but Thalia got in the way. Both went down painfully.

Ron got up, knocking over his chair. "What-what the hell is going on? More monsters?"

I looked at him incredulously. "Yes, more monsters! I thought I explained everything in the car!"

Even though there was a fight going on at our feet, Ron still managed to pout like a little kid. "I was...maybe..asleep during less than half of your explanation. Just less than half."

I groaned and jumped into the action. Thalia was struggling to kill Gigi, since she was too close to her to use her spear. Gigi rolled away and got up.

Thalia could finally use her spear since they weren't in close quarters anymore.

The empousa growled at Annabeth, who was still confused about the situation. Or at least, that's what she looked like.

"You will be mine! I will make you my pet, and I will only feed you once a day!" Once she finished that statement, she dodged Thalia like nothing and headed over to Annabeth.

She must have anticipated the move, because she brought her dagger up, which made the empousa stop in her tracks. Had she kept going, she would have become monster dust.

Annabeth looked at me, like _Do something, Percy! _

The empousa sniffed the air. Her head turned to me. "I smell..love."

Um, what?

"So, it's your fault I was rejected..."

And without warning, she sprung herself at me.

**Clarisse: Oh, cliffhanger...  
Annabeth: I really hate those.  
Clarisse: *awkward silence*  
Annabeth: So...what do we do now?  
Clarisse: She didn't leave instructions for the end comments.  
Annabeth: Then it's time to improvise. Let's ask the readers who they would like to co-host the next chapter.  
Clarisse: Ok. Well, you punks already heard the question. Who do you want?  
Annabeth: Pick wisely. Itsi might end up fighting the person you picked.**


	11. A Pervy Empousa and Two Best Friends

**Me: And heeeeere's Jason! He was the one that was most wanted, you know, to be the next co-host…..  
Jason: Hey.  
Me: The people want to know, how come only you can fly, but Thalia can't?  
Jason: Oh, she can, it's just, you know…she doesn't use that power….'cause of the…height problem…?  
Me: Lol, so true.  
Jason: Did….did you just **_**SAY**_** "lol"?  
Me: ….Yeah.  
Jason: Who does that?  
Me: I'm going back to my room to cry some more. Enjoy this chapter.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

"No!" I screamed as Percy was about to be gutted. I threw myself at Gigi, even though Percy was in this predicament _because _he was about to help me out of the empousa's clutches.

A word for the wise: Never mess with my boyfriend. If you do, it's on like Donkey Kong.

**(Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit ***_**listener's discretion advised*)**_

I head butted Gigi in the stomach, and together we crashed through the glass wall of the body shop. We were outside now.

My instincts took over, and I flipped Gigi under me as we were in the air, using her like a cushion, keeping me safe from the broken glass. She howled in pain as the glass entered her back, and the ADHD part of me wished that the moon was full tonight, instead of being in its "new" phase.

"Get _off of me! _What the Hades?" she screamed. Instead of answering her, I noticed it was already dark outside. According to the skies, it was about 10:00.

Using my advantage of being on top of her, I raked my nails across her face, hopefully blinding her for a while as my friends (and Ron) reached us and helped me get rid of the empousa. Somewhere along the way I lost track of my dagger.

I waited a while, but nobody came. Where were they? I decided to use this time to question her.

"Earlier, you spoke of a master. Who is it, and why does he or she want us dead?"

Instead of an answer, I got this:

"Hey, are you guys in some kind of movie?"

I was momentarily confused, because that last voice was neither Gigi's or mine.

I turned around, and there was a hispanic teenage girl holding the hand of a younger hispanic girl, probably about nine years old. I completely forgot about the empousa, who used the distraction to throw me off of her.

I sailed back, probably screaming like "_Waaaauuuuugghhh!_"

I screamed in pain, and realized that I hadn't been thrown that far back. I landed on some glass. Every time I breathed, the glass penetrated my back even more.

I was even blacking out slowly, really slowly. I may have cracked my skull a bit on the pavement.

Gigi hissed at the girl who distracted me.

The girl's eyes widened and she pushed her younger companion in front of her to get her running. "Time to haul ass, Daniela! Run, sucker, run!" Soon, they were out of sight. Therefore, out of mind.

"Now, my _boss,_" she began, with a mocking undertone on that last word, "told me to kill you right away. But you will definitely suffer before you die. _Then _you will die. You may be a hot boy, but you're a _bad _hot boy."

She slowly dragged her fingernails across my face, making sure I felt every painful stoke of her hand. I tried not to make a sound.

I couldn't move. I think the crack in my skull was serious, because all I could do was watch. Even blinking was agonizing.

Where were Percy and Thalia? Where was Ron?

Gigi began to use her sharp nails to make horizontal cuts on the bridge of my nose. I didn't understand what was going on, but I was seriously getting creeped out now. She leaned down and licked the blood off my nose, the horrible stench of her breath entering my nostrils. But whatever. At least she didn't kiss m-

She cut my lower lip and then kissed me!

If I could have, I would have shuddered and pushed her off of me! This was so wrong in so many ways. I did NOT bat for the other team, male anatomy or not.

I began to feel tears streaming down my face. Was this how it was going to end? I prayed that this would stop, and it was like someone out there actually listened.

I heard a ZIP!

An arrow materialized in Gigi's head, and she managed to scream before turning into golden dust. The only things that remained of her were her 10 crooked fingers. Double the amount the recipe asked for.

I think my relief was too much, or maybe my body needed serious rest, because I passed out immediately.

_In my dream, I was just a spectator. There were two little boys playing in a meadow, putting flowers in their tunics. One of them was blonde, and the other had dark hair, maybe black. And it was obvious that they were best friends._

_Suddenly, the blonde boy's eyes darkened, literally, but then snapped out of whatever had just happened. He looked at his best friend with new eyes. He backed away from the dark-haired one, like as if he was some sort of monster._

_The dark-haired one smiled and asked in Ancient Greek what was wrong. The blonde just got up abruptly, and left running like his life depended on it._

_The one left behind sat there, confused, then tried to go after his friend, but then tripped on a rock and began to cry. His wails made my heart lurch in compassion. But the compassion disappeared when his wails began to sound like angry screaming, then a man cursing. The boy slowly morphed into a man, maybe mid-twenties, and started cursing the blonde in Ancient Greek. I only understood a few words._

"_I will kill you, Apollo!"_

_Then he turned angrily, stalking off to Zeus knows where. Then he turned and said in a sweet voice "Wake up, Annabeth. Show us that you aren't dead. Wake up."_

_So I did._

I was on a bed, Ron above me. He beamed and called to my friends.

They came and Thalia tackle-hugged me, which really hurt.

Percy took my hand and seemed to take his first breath in a while. "I thought you were going to die on me for a second there."

I smiled. "Me? Never."

Thalia held up a bag. "Empousa fingers check!" She turned to fist-bump Clarisse, but remembered that she had abandoned us. She blushed and coughed. "A-as soon as you get better, we've got to continue on."

I nodded. Percy handed me our last piece of ambrosia, and I ate it.

The cuts on my nose disappeared, and in no time, I felt great.

"Let's go," Percy said. Everyone else exited the motel room.

I hung back a little, still troubled by my dream. What did Apollo see in that vision he obviously had before he left his friend so rudely? And who was this "boss" Gigi spoke about?

I looked at the ever-present duck in my hand, and I wondered if this quest was really just about giving me back my original body.

**Jason: What am I supposed to do now? I think the author girl said that the next co-host was going to be a god or something….  
****Jason:…..**  
**Jason: So yeah….bye. Read and repew.**  
**Jason: I mean, READ AND REVIEW!**


	12. The Day Percy Killed Annabeth's Dreams

**Hades: We are back!  
Me: Uh, yeah, we are.  
Hades: It feels nice to finally have some family time together. Did you readers know she is my daughter?  
Me:*blush* Dad…I mean, Father…  
Hades: How is your story going? Are people actually reading it?  
Me: My story is fine, a few plot holes, but I figured out how to fill them in, and peo-  
Hades: Good, good.  
Me: I- I didn't get to-  
Hades: On to the story!**

**~Percy's POV~**

I don't know how to tell you this without sounding harsh. So I'll just say what's on my mind, and hope that you will understand what I mean.

I couldn't go out with Annabeth anymore. Those of you who are surprised we hadn't broken up yet…well…

I…just couldn't. I mean, she was in a _guy's _body, and it was making me uncomfortable. There. I said it. But how was I going to tell Annabeth? Maybe, just maybe, she's thinking along the same lines, and what I tell her will be not as difficult.

We stopped at a gas station called Quik Trip, but not because we needed gas. We had decided to leave the Yugo in peace. No, we stopped because Ron had to pee.

"Really, Ron? We just left the motel! Why didn't you pee before, when Annabeth was still unconscious?" Thalia asked, really irked.

It's true. We'd only just walked out of the motel five minutes ago. What progress.

"I'm sorry, I may have lost my pee schedule somewhere on the train," Ron said. "How am I supposed to know I have to pee _before _I have to pee?"

"Keep track of the amount of liquids you drink! Duh!"

Ron puffed up and just left for the gas station, not even noticing the daggers Thalia was throwing at him with her eyes.

After she calmed down, Thalia decided to take advantage of the situation to buy food with the last of our money. It seemed that, this time, money and ambrosia was running out _way_ too fast. So she left, leaving me and Annabeth alone. I believed this to be fate, to tell Annabeth that we needed to…break it off for a while.

"Hey, Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" she asked. Something was clearly on her mind, but I needed what was on _my _mind out before I chickened out.

I cleared my throat. How do I start this?

Straight up. "You're a guy, right?"

She frowned. "No, I'm a female in a male's body."

"Ok. You are _currently _in a guy's body."

She rolled her eyes, slightly crushing my courage to continue on. "Yes, Seaweed Brain."

_Did it suddenly get hotter in the city of Tulsa? _

"And I'm… a guy." I continued on.

_Yes! It was definitely getting hotter!_

"Yes. You are."

"We're both technically guys."

Annabeth groaned. "Percy, where is this conversation going?" According to her tone of voice, though, she knew _exactly _where this was heading.

"I have to use the restroom," Annabeth said walking off.

No! No! I'll never have the guts to speak up again! Enough beating around the bush!

Her back was to me when I blurted out "We need to break up!"

She froze, so still I could have sworn someone pushed pause on the remote control of life.

She turned on her heel, slowly, as if she expected me to take back what I said in the time it took her to turn.

"What?" The pain in her voice practically _begged _me to be kidding.

I took a deep breath. "I-I can't go out with you anymore."

She involuntarily took a step back. "What?" she asked again.

"You heard me, Annabeth. I know you did."

Bewilderment replaced the hurt in her voice. "Why?"

And then came the most difficult part.

"Because," I said, looking down at my hoodie. Funny, it was in the middle of July, and here I was wearing one.

"Percy, 'because' isn't good enough. Why?"

I breathed like it was my last second on earth. "Because, it looks—it feels weird—to be going out with you. We're both men here. Until that changes, well, I think maybe we should break it off."

"Percy, it's not like anyone can really tell that I'm your girlfriend.. I mean, we don't hold hands, and I won't kiss you in my current state. Nobody who _doesn't_ already know won't figure it out. Nobody will know," she said, the last sentence whispered.

"I'll know." My voice sounded like someone else's.

Annabeth gasped a little bit, then recovered. "Percy—" she began, but I had to continue.

"Annabeth, you're a guy. Just—just like it's frowned upon by society to force a homosexual dude to love a woman, or a homosexual girl to love a man, it's equally wrong to force a straight guy…to love another guy."

"No one is FORCING YOU TO GO OUT WITH ME! Did someone force you to go out with me?"

"No—"

"Exactly! And I'm _not_ a man! I am a female with a boyfriend that makes fun of people! If you weren't such a Seaweed Brain, none of this would have happened!"

Ouch. "Annabeth, look into the glass," I said, pointing to the glass wall Quik Trip had.

She did.

"Percy, I don't—"

"What did you see in your reflection? A man, a guy, right? For now, that's what you are. We have to end this, for now."

She looked into my eyes, and it's like an Ice Age passed between us. Her eyes were steel-gray, without emotion. But then, they welled up with tears, threatening to pour down. She ran her hand through her spiky blond hair, and spoke. "Fine. If that's what you think, fine. I don't care anymore."

She began to walk towards the gas station, and I grabbed her shoulder. I didn't want this to end like it always does, in a cliché movie.

"Annabeth—"

She violently shrugged off my hand, not even bothering to look back, and kept walking.

**(This Little Girl by Cady Groves)**

At that moment, I completely understood how people felt after a break-up. Annabeth is—_was_—my first girlfriend, so I've never felt the pain before. When you break up with someone you really love, your stomach feels heavy afterward because pieces of your heart weigh more when they're sitting shattered at the bottom of your stomach.

A voice, a dark voice, whispered in my mind. _You're a cold, sadistic, heartless boy. You have ice in your veins._

I felt a searing pain around my heart area, but I ignored it.

_~Didn't Know How to Make a Line Breaker So I Made My Own~_

A while later, Annabeth came back, and she looked a little composed, except for the puffiness around her eyes. She'd been crying. I was going to say something, but just then Thalia and Ron walked up, laughing, their arms full of food.

"Enjoy," Thalia said. Then she saw Annabeth's face.

There was an awkward silence, then Ron whispered, loudly, in Thalia's ear "_I think something happened!_"

**Hades: Hey, you have gray hairs.  
Me: Yeah, I know. Like I said earlier, the story has plot holes, and I want what's best for the read-  
Hades: Ah! It must be because your birthday is next week! When is it, October….October something…  
Me: Shhh!  
Hades: Ah! The 24****th****! I just remembered! You're going to be 17! A grown woman, eh?  
Me: Anyone who's reading this, kill me. **


	13. Search and Seizure

**Me: Hi and hello there, it's me, the super amazing-  
George: - and not at all modest-  
Me: -authoress of this story!  
Martha: Thank you for having us, Itsi.  
Me: Thank **_**you**_** for being here! Have any of you read Mark of Athena yet?  
George: No, but I have been reading many rat cookbooks.  
Martha: Oh, yes, we have read Mark of Athena, but we shall not speak of it, for many readers may not have enjoyed reading it just yet.  
George: But we HAVE read rat cookbooks.  
Me: You have a one-track mind, don't you, George?  
George: What about rats?**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

Over the span of sixteen years, I have only _truly _wanted five things. Just five.

One of the things was going to Greece and seeing all of the architecture. What can I say? Those buildings have lasted for thousands of years, some of them still looking exceptionally well, while the buildings _here_ are crumbling after only 20 years.

Another one of the things, however clichéd and girly it sounded, was to find the perfect guy for me, and for both of us to love each other forever, even beyond death. I had moronically thought that that "perfect" guy would be Percy. Clearly, number two on my wish-list was never going to happen. Why even continue on this quest, anyway? I had accepted this quest so that he and I could continue as before. Now…what was the point?

To have hope of love dangling in front of my face, so close yet so far away, _just _beyond my reach, and then to have it rudely snatched away… that _crushed _me.

I had apparently wailed so loudly in the gas station's bathroom that one of the employees was forced to check that no one was being raped. After settling everything, insisting that my virginity was still intact, I went outside again. I wiped my face of any emotion as much as possible. If Percy saw me with tears in my eyes, that would be point 2 for Percy.

We were alone for a brief two seconds or so, with Percy rubbing his chest as if it hurt the whole time.

When Thalia and Ron arrived with the food, we ate in blissful silence. Afterwards, when we finished our meals bought with the last of our money, we spoke, but in hushed tones. Maybe Ron wasn't as dumb as he let on, since he never asked why my eyes were still a little puffy. He must have taken a hint.

Then again, he probably heard my wailing.

"Let's get going," Thalia said, tugging on her spiky hair. "Remember what Rachel said. 'Beware of females.' Something along those lines. We should keep moving before Annabeth's face get us into more trouble." She gave me a look.

"Hey, I _resent_ that look," I said.

She shrugged and got up, wiping crumbs off her leather pants. We all followed suit, and began to walk again. It got darker after a while, even though it was only about 12:00 pm. Apparently, I'd been out for only a few hours.

It started to rain, so we ran to the nearest tree, which provided an embarrassingly small amount of shelter from the downpour. Said tree was close to the road. A huge puddle had _formed _on the road. Guess what else was on the road? You guessed it, a trailer truck. As it drove by, the tires hit the water, which landed on us, drenching us from head to toe.

We looked at each other in utter silence, until Ron piped up. "That, my friends, was what us hoboes call 'a shower'."

"Ah, gross, man!" Percy exclaimed, and we all moved a little farther away from the bum.

I looked at the duck in my hand, and wondered how in Hades it was still clean. No matter how many times I dragged it across the mud, it always came out spotless and smelling like sweet laundry detergent.

Ron started whining. "Guys, I'm cold. This hobo needs a place out of the rain, preferably with a nice fire going on."

His voice was whinier than a typical teenage girl shopping for prom dress with her daddy. _How very mature_, I though drily.

We _did _agree that shelter was important to survive, though, so we set off to find one. As we searched, a mental image of me setting Percy on fire while he was tied to a stake appeared in my mind. Hmm. I _have _heard that humans make great torches. Lots of grease to burn, so they say.

I kept seeing Percy reach his hand up to his heart, pain etched into his face. He tried to make me listen to his explanation on why he did what he did. Here's how it went:

Percy: Hey, Annabeth, listen-  
Me: DON'T talk to me.  
Percy: The more you evade me, the faster I'll chase.  
Me: Really? Then get training, 'cause you're in for a marathon.  
Percy: You have to listen to me-  
Annabeth: You know what, Percy? You can kiss my-  
Ron and Thalia: SHUT THE F*CK UP AND FIND US SOME FREAKING REFUGE!

It went _something_ like that.

For once, I was the teeniest bit glad that I was in the body of a male. If I was still…normal, my long hair would have been plastered to my face thanks to all the wind.

I spotted a place that we could stay at until the rain let out, and was about to point it out to my companions, until, behind me, Percy let out a strangled sound. I spun around, ready to accuse him of causing a scene just so I could talk to him, when he dropped like a sack of apples. He didn't move.

My heart dropped down to my muddy shoes.

We all ran to him, like crazed teenaged girls would to Justin Beiber products, and when I took a good look at him, I almost threw up right then and there.

His eyes sprung open, which at least told me he was alive, but they were rolling around, taking in everything and nothing. Actually, it looked like he was seeing things that we couldn't see, like he was having some kind of vision, and it absolutely terrified me. Another thing: his eyes were black. They were endless, bottomlesss pits, and I felt that if I cleaned closer to him, I might fall into his eyes and never see the light again. I shuddered. I had sort of just described Tartarus.

I barked at Thalia and Ron to help me drag him to the refuge I had spotted just a few seconds ago.

On the way, I whispered to Percy happy things in soothing tones, hoping that through whatever he was going through, my voice could penetrate his thoughts and he could hear me.

When we were fifteen feet away from the entrance, he started screaming. And when I say "screaming," I actually mean shrieking and screeching like something was controlling him, forcing him to holler like a monkey.

We entered the small building, which, upon reflection, was actually an abandoned restaurant, and set Percy down.

He was still screaming his head off, and his eyes seemed like they would pop out any second. He put his hands to his ears and roared out "NO NO NO NO NO!" over and over.

It got to the point where we were forced to knock him out. Thalia tapped her bracelet, and Aegis sprung out, in its full…ugliness. She held it by the rim, swung, and almost smashed his head in.

Yes, it took him out, but I preferred him screaming to seeing that humongous bruise forming just above his hairline. Thalia dropped her shield, looking guilty, and plopped down on the cold tiled floor.

We all sat there in an awkward silence, wondering what on Earth just occurred before our eyes.

I crawled over to Percy, and lifted one of his eyelids. They were back to being the beautiful sea-green they have always been. I began wordlessly rubbing his head, waiting for him to wake up. If he somehow died now, my last words to him could be "You can kiss my-."

I prayed to any god that could hear me.

_Please, don't let those words to him have been my last._

**Hermes: If you don't mind, I'd like my caduceus back.  
Me: -azer mode, huh? I wonder if I could destroy Mount Olympus with th- *notices Hermes* OH HEY HERMES WE WEREN'T SAYING ANYTHING EXCEPT HOW COOL YOU ARE!  
Hermes: Uh-huh…  
George: And we were absolutely NOT talking about your crazy eyebrows.  
Martha: George!  
Hermes: *looks at authoress* You have ten seconds to pray to any deity before I blast your internal organs into space.  
Me: I choose to pray to Hermes, the best god ever to have fought the Titans.  
Hermes: …..You're lucky I'm in a good mood.  
Me: Yes, yes I am.**


	14. Pain is an Understatement

**Me: Hey, guys, I'm here with Grover, your favorite barnyard friend.  
Grover: I though we agreed not to call me that!  
Me: Nope!  
Grover: So, what do I do as co-host?  
Me: Nothing. Just stand there and look pretty.  
Grover: *blushes* Y-you think I'm pretty?  
Me: As a picture.**

**~Percy's POV~**

My insides were being pulled out of me! My guts were spilling out of my belly button!

At least, that's what it felt like.

One second, I'm A-OK, just feeling a little heartache. I mean, this was probably THE worst mistake of my life so far. So _forgive me_ if heartache is lame to you.

Anyways, I'm fine one second, and the next, -BAM! An invisible hand grasps my throat and begins to tighten its hold. It was terrible. All the air escaped my lungs, and I couldn't breathe in to get it back! Then, something pushes me and I fall to the ground, face-planting onto the cold, wet grass. I couldn't move, and I had no idea what the Hades was going on.

_Is this what it feels like when you're seriously about to die? Defenseless, cold, alone, and done for?_

That's when the memories hit. Random memories, ones that had been in the back of my mind since they happened, seemingly unimportant until then.

I was in nursery school again, and I watched as a snake slithered up to me during nap time. I grabbed it with my meaty toddler hands, and watched as the life escaped the snake's body.

Something flashed, and immediately, I noticed that _I _was the snake! I was in the hands of a kid, and he began to squeeze my neck. My vision blurred, and I couldn't breathe! Why? Why couldn't I breathe?

The memory changed, but I still felt fingers on my throat.

It was on my 7th birthday, and I waited for my mom to cut the cake she had baked just for me. Out of boredom, I got some sidewalk chalk and started crushing ant with a bright green chalk. One by one, I killed them until it was time to taste my cake.

Again, another flash, and I was an ant. A humongous shadow loomed over me, and started lowering. I wasn't fast enough to get away. The bright green murder weapon forced my insides out in a way that just was _not _natural. _Filthy human! _I thought, before I, Percy the ant, died.

In 5th grade, during class, one gloomy afternoon, I was not feeling the love. I put my head down to sleep. I wanted to be left alone in the corner. But this one kid whose name I forget walked up to me, grinning ear to ear, thinking maybe I needed a friend to make me feel better, and tapped my shoulder. I shot my head up, and reached for the nearest thing to smack the kid with.

I wanted to be alone! Take a hint!

Unfortunately, that _thing_ was a crayon box, so I broke his nose when it came in contact with the box.

_Flash! _I was the kid, and I had just tapped the lonely boy's shoulder. A dull gray crayon box was shoved into my face, and blood splattered all over the new shirt my momma had just bought me. The pain was indescribable. And the panic! Oh, how I wished I could go back in time and undo all of these awful things!

This had to stop! No more! No! No! No!

My subconscious began bringing up another memory despite my pleas.

I had flashbacks of things I had seen on TV, like a deer hunter blowing a poor doe's brains out. I felt the doe's pain, feeling the slush of my brains flooding out of the hole in my head. I was especially scared when I was seconds from dying and realized that the doe was pregnant with twin babies.

The pain was mounting up from all the memories, and it was excruciating. No, worse! If I could, I would call it agoni-tort-sever-intense-violen-unbear-atating. Pain racked my body in waves as I remembered watching on the news that some guy had been run over, reduced to a pancake by a tank in a protest he was a part of. I yelled and shrieked until it got so loud I had had to cover my own ears to stop from feeling like I was about to permanently destroy my freaking eardrums.

I thought I was going to die, the pain was _so much_. I subconsciously knew I was sweating. I was gasping for breath, and my body was giving me signs that I was about to throw up.

Through the pain, I heard a chuckle. Slowly, things faded to black. I didn't know where I was.

Then, I heard a soft, soothing voice, and it told me where to go. It was Annabeth's voice. She told me everything would be ok.

The pain, although still there, was already beginning to turn into a dull throbbing ache. My stomach settled down.

Slowly, light began to creep out of windows (that I swear weren't there before). I was in a room, still a little dark despite the light, so it looked gloomy. Somewhere, I heard water dripping.

A man with dark hair sat on a throne. He had bags under his eyes, like he hadn't had enough sleep lately, and his eyes glinted with malice.

His throne was made of glass. It was covered in fingerprints and spider webs, like as if his housekeeper was going on strike. It was studded with what at least _looked_ like fake jewels.

The guy was, at first, humming a little tune that seemed innocent enough. It got creepy when he actually started singing the words. It sounded like a folk song, maybe polka.

"Steg wodahs ruoy reggib eht, thgil eht ot era uoy resolc eht. Steg wodahs ruoy reggib eht, thgil eht ot era uoy resolc eht. Steg wodahs ruoy reggib eht, thgil eht ot era uoy resolc eht."

_Was that some kind of foreign language?_

He repeated the words so much that, eventually, I got it. I got what he was saying. And I didn't get the _actual meaning_ at first. I pondered for a while, then shuddered when I got the hidden meaning. The hidden message was not a happy one.

The man stopped singing, and smiled—straight at me! His eyes…wow, I'd never seen so much…sadness in them. Yet, I saw insane anger in them too. And his voice? Gravelly.

"Kekeke, I see Percy Jackson is trying to spy. That is a no-no, boy. Don't want you to know right away, do we? And by the way, did you like the present I sent you? I'm sure she liked _you_, because the idiot didn't manage to kill you. Why did you _kill her, _though? Jealous that she had set her sights on your girlfriend turned boyfriend?"

Okay, this guy was making me angry, and I didn't even know him.

"_You won't ever reach me in time, Jackson. I'll be sending you MANY more gifts, so enjoy them while you can. Enjoy them. Enjoy them. Courtesy of…Nameless."_

I wanted to scream, because those last sentences weren't spoken. I could _hear_ his thoughts. This guy was in my brain!

Then I did scream, because everything in the room swirled, and I found myself staring at a pair of baby blues.

"Gah!" I cried out, because Apollo was just _way _too close for comfort.

Before another thought could form in my mind, Apollo was talking.

"Jackson! I finally got to you! Don't interrupt m, because I'm on a time limit and I have a lot to say: First, find the sculptor with the stone-faced lover. Help the sculptor, who will in turn help you. Second: Avoid gods that weren't sent by me, and…OH- don't listen to dark-haired men. Especially if they don't give you their name. Just avoid them, yes?"

A loud voice boomed from behind him. "APOLLO!? WHERE ARE YOU? THE COUNCIL IS MEETING!"

It sounded like Zeus.

"I'll be right there!" Apollo yelled back. He winked at me, and then shushed me when I tried to ask what he was talking about, sculptors and men with dark hair.

He waved his hand, and the world turned back and faded.

**Grover: OK, you guys noticed the creepy message Nameless gave Percy, right? Steg wodahs ruoy reggib eht, thgil eht ot era uoy resolc eht?  
Me: I have a special challenge for you. Find out what it is.  
Grover: It might not even be that hard!  
Me: Yeah! Listen to the pretty goat! And a little message to a certain, possibly Portuguese reader, Saphire. **_**Não, caro leitor, eu não tenho um **_**Nyah!****Fanfiction**_**conta. É apenas a minha história traduzida em Português, eu acho. Mas obrigado pela leitura!  
**_**Grover: Excuse her if her Portuguese is wrong. She's just guessing that's how you say and spell all the words.  
Me: Yeah. Remember the challenge!**


	15. Here, Piggy, Piggy!

**Me: 'Sup, people? Today co-hosting is my, erg, **_**acquaintance**_** Hugs6 (whose stories I asked you very nicely to read before).  
Hugs: Right! And I know I promised not to discuss this, but we're both bad with promises so….LEO IS MINE!  
Me: Nuh-uh! Leo is mine, body and soul!  
Hugs: Yeah huh, he's mine!  
Leo: Mmf.  
Hugs: See? He's mine because I kidnapped him!  
Me: I hope that he punches you in the gut when you let him loose!**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

_In the beginning, there was Chaos, a state which cannot be clearly defined, for it was a swirling mass of nothing, without shape or form. This "Chaos" had great power, power without limits. Then, out of the void, appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. Then, somehow, Love was born, bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaea, the Earth, appeared._

_And then Percy woke up._

No, hold up! Percy was NOT at the beginning of the Creation!

I had been telling myself some stories as I was cared for Percy as he slept.

He looked so peaceful afterwards, when the screaming and squirming stopped. I started stroking his hair, not letting anyone else stay with him. So Thalia slept, and Ron did too, but he was having a nightmare, I think.

I didn't know what to make of Ron. Had it been a good idea to keep him? If it weren't for him, Clarisse would still be here. As much as I hated saying it, I maybe kind of missed her. But no one knew where she was, who she was with, and I was seriously having second thoughts about the hobo. All he seemed to do was eat and talk, none of which could help in this quest.

As I thought all this, I started stroking Percy's hair, retelling the story Chiron once told me about how everything began in my head. It was…pretty soothing for some strange reason.

So as you can imagine, I was _pret-ty_ startled (big understatement) when Percy's eyes fluttered open, since I was used to seeing them closed. He violently sat up, and began hacking something up. His eyes were bugging out, and the coughs were getting worse.

"G-guys! He's up! Help!" I called, waking our two companions up. In a few moments, all three of us were pounding on Percy's back until something flew out of his throat and splattered onto the opposite wall.

"Oh, Percy," I muttered, as his breathing returned to normal. He looked up at me, and with a husky tone said, "Thanks."

He cleared his throat, then said thank you again, this time with a smile.

"You're welcome," I smiled back, forcibly, because his eyes were unbelievably bloodshot. What had he seen? What had he been through?

"What happened, dude? You totally had a seizure!" Ron, as always, shouted this out, and Percy cleared his throat one last time.

He told us about what he saw, beginning with a chilling scene. A dark-haired man, apparently named Nameless, sending us "gifts". He described Nameless in full, and goose bumps ran up my arms. That was the same kid that was in _my _dream, the one who turned into a man and cursed Apollo. He then told us about what Apollo told him.

"Something about a sculptor with a stone-faced lover. Like, what the heck could that mean?" he asked. I knew who that was as soon as Percy relayed the medicine god's words. Apparently, so did Ron.

"Pygmalion," we both said at the same time.

"P-pig stallion? What? My ears full of wax or something?"

_Oh, Percy, the brightest bulb in the bunch._

"No," Thalia said, putting the pieces together. "Pygmalion. I…I remember who that is now! He was the man who saw the daughters of Propoetus…um…"

"Prostitute themselves," I continued for her. It's a pretty hard word to say for some people.

"Yeah…that…anyways, he saw them doing that, and decided he didn't like women. But he created a statue out of ivory that looked so life-like, he fell in love with it."

Percy scratched his chin. "The sculptor with the stone-faced lover, huh? Now, where could this guy be?" He got up. "Knowing our luck, we might just find him here in T-town," he said, motioning with his hands that he meant the city of Tulsa.

We were about to exit the abandoned restaurant, when I remembered that something had come out of Percy's throat and hit a wall earlier. I ran to the wall, and found a wad of paper nicely wrapped in saliva. I ignored that, and opened the paper carefully, so as not to damage it.

"What is it?" Ron asked. "Money? For more food?"

"Better," I said, and everyone flocked around me. I displayed the piece so everyone could see.

"Thank you, Lord Apollo," I said, as I pocketed the paper, the directions scrawled on it -telling us the location Pygmalion's residence—already memorized. "Thank you, for being thoughtful for once."

**~THIS-IS-A-LINE-BREAKER-BECAUSE-I-DON'T-KNOW-HOW-TO-MAKE-MY-OWN~**

After twenty minutes of walking, we found what we were looking for.

It was a small store that sold statuary. The front lawn was flooded with statues of all shapes and sizes. I'll admit I was a little intimidated by this. Memories of Medusa surged through, and I swallowed, trying to focus on something else, like the statue in front of me. It was an amazingly chiseled horse, rearing up in response to an unseen enemy. If I squinted, I would have probably mistaken it for the real thing. Amazing.

The shop had a front gate, with the name of it on top: Eastland Ornamentals.

We opened the gate, stepped onto the lawn, and crossed over until we were in front of the actual shop. A warm smile greeted us.

"Well, hello there!" A man said, and when I looked up at him, I'll admit I thought he must have been one of the handsomest guys I have ever seen in my miserable pathetic life.

His stature was well over 5'8'', and his cheek bones were nice and high. His skin was dark in a way that can only be obtained in the Mediterranean. The only problem:

"Dark hair, guys," Thalia whispered so quietly, even _I _almost didn't hear it.

"What was that? Never mind, you probably weren't talking to me anyway. I am Piggy, and I am here to make your statuary-shopping experience a delight."

I took a step forward. "Hi, my name is…" _Crap! What was my cover? _Oh, yeah.

"…Andrew. Andy, for short. We're here looking for a statue of a woman, for—for a gift. For a friend."

_Annabeth Chase, that has got to be one of the worst ones yet. _I cringed, realizing only an idiot would buy that.

Apparently, Piggy—who was obviously Pygmalion—was an idiot, because he just nodded like that made perfect sense and it wasn't complete BS.

But as he turned, when he thought I couldn't see him anymore, his face hardened for a little bit, in a kind of protective way, but he looked back to flash us a smile, which looked a little more forced.

"Yes, yes, right away. A woman, you say? I have the perfect one."

He led us to a statue of a woman who was in pain, doubled over like someone had punched her in the gut. It didn't make the butterflies—or more like wasps—in my stomach calm down any more.

_This can't be the statue he's in love with. No way. _

I faced him, and opened my mouth. "Ahem, we were looking for one that looked more, uh, real?" I hadn't meant that to come out as a question, and Thalia saved me by saying "And a little less in pain. We don't want our friend to be frightened by our gift, if you know what I mean."

Piggy didn't say anything, just pointed a finger at another statue.

When I looked to see, my mind was like "DOES. NOT. COMPUTE."

I was face to face with a gnome, and an ugly one, too. He was grinning wickedly, like as if HE was the one who had punched the first statue in the gut, and enjoyed it.

I was in the process of giving Piggy a look that said, _dude, wtf?_ when I saw him push a large red button, making celestial bronze bars swiftly close off all exits.

Damn. Damn. Damn. I got it all wrong. I mistook a finger getting ready to push for a finger pointing at a disgusting gnome. What the Hades was going on?

I was better than this! I was Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, the goddess of Wisdom! I don't make mistakes like that!

But I shook my head, ignoring my bruised ego. Right now, I had to focus on not getting killed. So, with my heart-rate accelerating and my stomach in my sneakers, I stuttered (_GAH! STUTTERED! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!_) out "N-no, you've got this all wrong, we're not here to-"

Piggy pulled out a sword from a hidden compartment behind him. He knew something was going to happen, and he'd prepared himself for it. But he was pointing the weapon at the wrong people! I felt like a garden gnome had just punched _me _in the stomach.

"I know what you're here for, _Celestial spawn_," he said, like it was the worst insult he could think of, "and I tell you now, you will not lay a finger on my Galatea."

**Me: *pulls out chainsaw* **_**DIE!**_**  
Hugs: Hey, this sounds totally familiar! Wonder why... oh well…**_**DIE!**_**  
Leo: Ugh, I'm not dating either of you! I'm dating a daughter of Poseidon on someone else's account.  
Me: Wanna go kill her?  
Hugs: Already tried, she's immortal.  
Me: HOW DARE YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?  
Hugs: IT'S NOT MY FAULT!  
Annabeth: All my money's on Hugs.  
Clarisse: Nah, Itsi's going to win. Who do YOU guys think is gonna win?**


	16. Zero Escape

**Me: 'Tis I, Itsi, with my sister Hazel!  
Hazel: Ummm…who are you? I was supposed to co-host with Itsi, not some random girl.  
Me: …I **_**AM**_** ITSI! Jeez, just 'cause I fixed my eyebrows doesn't mean I look THAT different!  
Hazel: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. **_**You're **_**Itsi?  
Me: Ugh! Here's chapter 16, guys.**

**~Percy's POV~**

**(Loser by Beck)**

_If—when—we get back to Camp, I am going to kick Riley's butt, screw the consequences!_

This quest was going from bad to worse by the second! I mean, jeez, the minute we got the prophecy, I'm sure _we all _doubted we'd get very far, seeing as we're always trying to kill each other, especially Clarisse and I. Flap knows how, but we _did_ make it this far.

Now, we were all going to die by the sword point of a guy named Piggy. Would the embarrassment ever stop?

I looked from side to side, wondering how we were going to get out of this predicament. Zero escape, any movement may be seen as a threat and result in one of us coming out of here a few body parts short. And talking was out of the question. So, what to do?

Nothing happened during the silent minutes that passed by. I turned my head and saw that Annabeth was wringing her duck's head, eyes closed as she assessed the situation. She frowned, her eyes grim with determination.

Oh no, when she frowns after analyzing, she has found a way for us to escape. But that "way" may end with unfavorable results if it goes wrong. Now people can't say I was a bad boyfriend. If I noticed that about her, then give me credit.

Slowly and deliberately, she began to remove her backpack, the one with the ingredients for the reversal potion.

"Stop! Stop right there! Unless you want a decapitated friend, I suggest you stop!" Piggy looked very serious. He was willing to kill someone in the name of love.

Andybeth—I mean, Annabeth—kept moving, and soon had her backpack off completely. She put it on the floor.

"I want you to trust us, Pygmalion," she said, in a calm voice. Her negotiating voice. "So I'm willing…to give up anything in that backpack."

"I don't need anything from you!" He bellowed, and took a threatening step towards Thalia.

Swiftly, Thalia took out her mace canister and allowed it to turn into a spear. "Touch me, and you will regret it," she said. This was getting out of hand.

"_Thalia!_ _Put your weapon away. I am not going to repeat myself. Put the weapon away and back off._" Annabeth sounded angry, and that put a hurt expression on Thalia's face.

"I want Pygmalion to know that we are civilized and willing to cooperate. You pulling out that weapon will dispel any trust that we may have earned."

With the hurt expression still on her face, Thalia put the spear away. Though she made it obvious that it was going to come out again if lives were threatened, whether it ruined everything or not.

Andybeth—gah! I MEAN, Annabeth—continued. "Daedalus once gave me a laptop that not only held amazing secrets to engineering; it also gave me facts about what happened in ancient times. I know that the first time, you brought Galatea to life by asking Venus, or Aphrodite, to do it. You needed three items to offer the goddess before your wish could be granted. I _know _that you have one of the three things, because it's sitting there on your desk."

I looked for the desk, and when I found it, I saw a golden antler. What it was from, I had no idea.

"You're missing two things, Pygmalion. You won't go outside in fear of someone coming in and breaking Galatea, or worse, stealing her from you. You got the antler with pure luck. The Ceryneian Hind just happened to wander into your shop, didn't it?"

Piggy's jaw ticked and he swung his sword, slicing off the top of Ron's hair. "STOP TALKING! That was a warning! Next time, I aim lower!"

"My hair!" Ron screamed, and dropped to his knees.

I begged with my eyes for Annabeth to stop talking. But remember that stubborn meter I talked about before, when Chiron said to Annabeth that she couldn't take more than two companions? Yeah, well, not that meter was up all the way. She was going to get us out of here, no matter what.

"I have six harpy feathers and ten empousae fingers. The laptop said you offered Aphrodite one golden antler of the Ceryneian Hind, one harpy feather, and five empousae fingers the first time. Go on, take them and offer them so that Galatea will come to life. Please, just do it."

She kicked the backpack towards him, and reluctantly he picked it up. He pulled out the Ziplock bags with our spoils, and removed only what was necessary. Once done, he pressed the same red button, and all the exits were opened.

"What…day is it?" he asked tentatively.

"Friday. Venus Day," Thalia answered. "A good day to offer up something to the Love Goddess."

Piggy looked across the room to me. "Would you all…like to see her?"

I opened my mouth to say _No effing way, man! You almost killed us due to a misunderstanding! _But Annabeth answered, "Yes, we'd love to."

Excited, Piggy lead us to a back room, and there on the platform stood the statue of a beautiful woman. A _naked _beautiful woman, which is why I respectfully kept my eyes up.

He took us to another door leading us outside, where he set up a fire. Before offering the items, we all helped pray to Aphrodite.

_Please, Lady Aphrodite, turn the statue into a living, breathing woman._

I may have prayed so hard, my pits began to sweat. Then we dropped the stuff into the fire and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, we were about to give up, deciding that Aphrodite was still pissed at me for making fun of her son, when we heard a crash, then a woman say "Whoops! Clumsy me!"

Piggy almost passed out, but his determination to see Galatea was stronger than the need to slip into unconsciousness.

Thalia and I high-fived, and helped Piggy get back on his feet. We walked back into the shop.

**Me: Okay, Hazel, now that we have things straight, I'm going to ask you what I was going to ask you before: You like the new cover for this story? I drew it myself, it's obviously Percy and Annabeth, and it took me AGES—  
Hazel: More like an hour—  
Me: -To finish it! I didn't have an orange colored pencil, so I had to go to the store to buy another box!  
Hazel: JUST for another orange?  
Me: I'm a complex creature. *looks at readers* Do **_**you guys**_** like it? Did I even upload it yet?  
Hazel: I think you did.**


	17. Annabeth Befriends A Former Statue

**Me: *singing* Popipopipopopipo, popipopipopopipo!  
Annabeth: Okay, seriously, you're **_**still **_**singing that song?  
Me: Okay, I'll sing a different song. *sings* Hra-tsa-tsa, ia ripi-dapi dilla barits tad dillan deh lando. Aba rippadta parip parii ba ribi, ribi, ribiriz den teahlando.  
Annabeth: Ummm…  
Me: Or another song! *sings* Sekai de ichiban ohime-sama. Sou iu atsukai kokoroete yo ne!  
Annabeth: I don't know you. Who are you.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

I, Annabeth Chase, from the land of Awesome Negotiations, was feeling very, very awkward.

I'd been called "cute", and "pretty", but the woman before me made me want to drop to my knees, kiss her feet, and scream "I'm not worthy!" Because she was just that beautiful.

I don't know if this is "beautiful" material for you, but she was pretty tall, about my size (5 foot 8, thank you very much) with longish honey-brown hair. Her eyes were truly green, like someone had colored her eyes in with an vibrant green marker.

I probably _would _have kissed her feet, too, but the fact that she was naked from head to toe stopped me.

Apparently, when she'd turned human her center of gravity had been unbalanced, so she'd fallen into a bunch of artist's smocks, which cushioned her fall.

Pygmalion ran to cover her body with his. "Do any of you have clothes?"

We all searched our bags, and I pulled out a bunch of clothes that looked like they would fit her.

After she put them on, I was ashamed to say they looked better on her than on me. And they were _men's _clothes.

**(Give A Little More by Maroon 5)**

There was an extended silence as none of us knew what to say. Pygmalion was busy running his long delicate fingers through Galatea's hair. "You're real. You're really real. I'm not insane, am I? You're really alive…" he would whisper in her ear.

"Dear," Galatea said. Amazing! Even her voice was like honey!

"Dear," she said again, "maybe you should go get some rest. Go lie down on the bed."

It took a while to convince him, because even the _thought_ of leaving his wife after all this time it took him to have her was unthinkable. He surely didn't want to leave her to some ratty teenage kids, and their friend, the hobo.

But the battle was lost when he yawned. Who knows how long it's been since he had a full night's sleep?

"See? Sleep, my Piggy. I'll still be here in the morning. I promise."

He nodded, kissed her, and got up while muttering apologies to me for almost sending our souls to the Underworld. He opened a door, went inside, and that was that.

Galatea grinned and kissed all of us in the cheeks in thanks for what we'd done. And I took that to the heart. Here was a woman, who hasn't been a human for more than twenty minutes, and already she had the guts to kiss people who haven't showered in days. "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Zeus bless you heroes. Now me and my Piggy can have the life we would have never been able to have if it were not for you four!"

I was about to correct her and say five, but then remembered Clarisse wasn't with us. I stood there awkwardly, trying to remember what I was about to say before I remembered about Clarisse. Thankfully, Thalia spoke for me.

"It was nothing," Thalia said sheepishly, scratching the back of her head awkwardly, "but…if it's not so rude to ask, may we have something in return?"

Galatea didn't even blink. "Oh, yes. Anything!"

"Well," I said, finally remembering how to talk, "Lord Apollo sent us here because he said you could somehow help us if we helped you."

Galatea tapped her chin, her glowing green eyes scanning the shop for anything that would be worthy of us having, something to show how much she really appreciates what we'd done.

"Something Apollo thought was necessary for you to have, enough to make you delay your quest for…hmmm. Ah!" she exclaimed. "A demigod came here not too long ago to buy a mini satyr statue for her cousin! For business reasons, Piggy asked if we could have her address, and she readily agreed!" She motioned us to a table, and waited for an answer as we sat.

"And?" Ron asked. I kicked him under the table once he was done sitting completely.

"Well, what if Apollo wants you to ask for help from her, the demigod girl?"

"But isn't it against your store policy to disclose that kind of…information?" Percy asked this, after he kicked Ron in the shin too.

"Normally, yes. But that demigod suggested we give her address to wandering half-bloods that needed aid, anyway. You're in need of aid, since you have no ambrosia and no money anymore, yes?"

I almost cried. "Yes…"

"Well, alrighty then!" Thalia said. "Let's have it, Mrs. Galatea. We've got to get going."

"Of course, of course! Follow me!"

She went to Pygmalion's desk and flipped through an address book with puppies on it. Meanwhile, she muttered "I know I was a statue when this 'address' thing went on, but my best guess is Lady Venus allowed my brain to collect this information as if I'd been human for a long time!" She giggled at that last part, and her hair got loose from the bun she'd tried to put it up in earlier.

"Here it is." She got another piece of paper and wrote down the address. "Sorry, Piggy might still need the address for other half bloods. I'll just copy everything down on another paper and….there!"

She handed the address to Thalia, who handed it to me. I looked at the handwriting, and I wasn't surprised to find out it was pretty, too. "About 2 miles from here, according to the directions and everything."

We all made to move to the door, waving goodbye and saying our thanks, when Galatea said, "Oh, wait! Wait! You, the blonde boy!"

I turned and muttered. "It's…Andrew." I motioned with my chin for my friends to go on without me for a bit. "You guys go ahead."

I wondered if she was two-faced and was going to chew me out for whatever reason. You know what I'm talking about. They seem so sweet and angelic, but when you're left alone with that 'angel' you find out that she's freaking Kronos' twin.

Instead I found her sitting in the chair she'd made us sit at earlier, her eyes so open and trusting, I couldn't look at her in the eye longer than a few seconds. Had I ever been like that? Looking like I handed out trust by the buckets?

I didn't squirm, no, but I might as well have, the way she looked at me, like _Don't worry, Andrew, jeez. I'm not a monster._

She began speaking.

"I want you to know that I am not fooled by your appearance when it comes to your soul. Yes, I still see you as a male, but I hear your heart screaming out that my eyes deceive me. Now I know that you are a smart, beautiful young woman."

I blushed like I did when Chiron tried to give me the sex-talk, something my father didn't have the guts to even mention. She blew hair out of her eyes and continued.

"But I sense that soon, you will grow to being accustomed to this. You will lose everything if you and Perseus remain men."

"It's _Percy_. He likes being called '_Percy_'." Since I couldn't look into her eyes, I focused on the point between her eyebrows, to make it seem like I was looking at her eyes.

"Okay, if you and _Percy _stay men. The demigod, the one you are about to seek…she has sight that might help you—no, that WILL help you—on your quest," she said, and then she reached over to her left and got a bag. She held it out to me, and I took it.

Inside was a variety of clothes that could last me a week. I looked at her in question.

"My gifts that are meant for you. Sorry, it's not much, but you helped me gain humanity, and you gave me some clothes, too," she smiled, tugging at the Abercrombie shirt I had given her.

"It's cool," I said. And I really meant that. Pygmalion's shop wasn't doing very well, I knew that. Let's face it; not many people buy these ornament things. Money was tight, and the ability to gather money would be a luxury.

"Thank you…so much," I said. I slowly got up, and I thought to myself, _I guess people can become friends in less than 40 minutes._

"And Annabeth?" she asked, and I wasn't creeped out when I remembered I never told her my real name. "Please, don't…think of the word 'ugly' when you're around the demigod girl."

I finally did look at her, like, _really_ looked at her.

"She's sensitive."

**Me: Okay, I'm done nerding out. No more singing.  
Annabeth: It's like the time you made me go along with you and the whole "Team Rocket Motto" thing.  
Me: You know you enjoyed that.  
Annabeth: NO.  
Me: Hey guys, you, yeah, you! Readers! Tell me some scary things that happened to you when you were kids. Like…ghost stories. I'll tell you mine: When I was little, a used to allow my limbs to hang off the side of my bed. But one night, I felt something brush past my hand, and I looked down and saw red eyes staring back at me. Now, I can't EVER let my limbs hang off. I spaz out and cry if I do.  
Annabeth: You spaz out most of the time anyway.**


	18. Would You Rather Meet A Zombie Girl?

**Me: Give me back Leo, you're worse than **_**Hugs!  
**_**gamingcraver129: Well, give me back Annabeth! You're worse than **_**blitzing riptide!  
**_**Me: Oh yeah!?  
camingcraver129: Bring it on, **_**old man**_**!  
Me: I'm a 17 year old GIRL!  
Both: [Censored by Chiron]! *start fighting*  
Annabeth: This is fun to watch, isn't it?  
Leo: Yeah, mucho entertaining.  
Me: That's the best you got!?  
gamingcraver129: Give up!**

**~Percy's POV~**

I knew this quest was going to suck majorly even before we met the zombie girl. As soon as we left Piggy's shop, it got really, _really_ hot. It was humid, so every time I breathed in, it felt like I was suffocating.

If I stayed outside anymore, I was soon going to be a bucket of fried chicken.

I took off my shirt, slightly pleased when I saw Annabeth blush like crazy then quickly look away.

"You know, if you get hot, you can take off your shirt too, Annabeth," Ron suggested.

Annabeth checked the address one more time. "Yeah, I don't think so," she said. "That'd still be a little awkward."

"Hmmm…I guess so."

"Ok, call me crazy, but I think we've already passed these apartments twice," Thalia said as she took the paper from Annabeth. "I sure don't _feel _like we've been walking in circles, but I could be wrong."

_If only Clarisse was here. _She would have paid attention to the way we were walking, and would have barked at us not to walk in circles.

Ron's sweaty face looked my way, and with a child-like voice, he whined "I think it's time to ask for directions, Percy! I'm hot!"

It must have been the hot weather getting to me, because I snapped out "Are you sure you're a hobo? Because I know that hoboes have to live through worse than this. You should have been used to bad weather by now."

He pouted. "Can we at least do something to get my mind off the heat?"

"Aha!" exclaimed Thalia. "Let's play a round of 'Would You Rather?'!"

"Well, that was fast," I told her.

"Hey, I need to get my mind off this weather too."

"I'm game," Annabeth said, studying the street signs.

"Sure," I said, "who goes first?"

"Me!" That was Thalia who said that. "OK, Ron, would you rather… accidentally slam your hand down on a telephone message spike OR get the tips of your fingers caught in a paper shredder?"

Ron squealed. "I'd rather get my fingers caught!"

That earned a laugh from her, and then she pointed at Ron to go next.

"Percy, would you rather…have to lift 20 pounds with a nose ring OR bite the legs off half a dozen mice?"

"Ew, gross dude!" Ron had a seriously sick and twisted mind! "But if I had to choose, I'd rather bite off the legs off the mice."

My turn. I grinned at Annabeth, who was still looking for the demigod's apartment.

"Ohhh, Annabeth?" I called, and she froze. She looked at me, and I knew she knew I was going to be evil. "Would you rather use a cheese grater on your knee until you hit bone OR stick a toothpick under your big toe and kick a wall?"

She didn't even think about it for a second. "Cheese grater. Definetely." She looked up the street, and changed the subject. "One of us might get a heat stroke if we don't get out of the sunlight. We should ask for directions."

"Fine, change the subject!"

"Whatever. It was going to be my turn to be asked anyway. I'd rather not find out what Annabeth had in store for me," Thalia said.

I nodded, and then focused on the quest to find this mysterious demigod. "Ok, let's find someone in those apartments." I pointed at the nearest cluster of them. "And ask the people that live there if they know where the address is."

I heard a gasp, and I recognized it as _Annabeth's_ manly gasp.

"Actually, guys, these are the apartments! All we need to find is the building and apartment number!"

We all but _ran_ to the apartments, and looked for the specific one we needed. I lead the group to a building, but found there were no numbers posted on them. I looked back at Annabeth, silently asking for help.

She pointed with her chin towards two arguing Hispanic girls. "Just ask them. Maybe they know."

I pointed at myself. "Me? Why me? Why not Thalia?"

Thalia answered "Because _Thalia _thinks that _Percy _should go." She had a look that said if I didn't go, I'd _for sure _be turned into a bucket of fried chicken.

I put my soggy shirt back on, and nervously sidled over to the girls, who were, to my despair, still arguing.

"LIAR! For reals, tell me why!"

"I TOLD you, I'm going-"

"No! Stop it with the lying!"

I looked behind me at Annabeth, like _Can we please ask someone else? Maybe someone who ISN'T having an argument?_

But she made hand gestures that said _Go, you big chicken!_

"You freaking pathological liar! You're just going to see SB, aren't you?"

"No! Really! Vegas is the legit reason!"

I tapped the shoulder of the girl nearest to me, the tallest one, who's back was to me.

"Hey, can you tell me where 47-"

She spun, like I frightened her. Before I could get a good look at her, she screamed. She grabbed her younger companion by the arm and ran_ all_ the way back to her apartment, where she locked the door (yes, still screaming).

I twisted around, pointing to the girls' door. "What'd I do?"

I returned, and Thalia shouted out "Aw, Percy, what did you do NOW?"

I threw my hands up. "Hey, hey, hey, all I did was tap her shoulder and ask her if she knew where the apartment was!"

Annabeth blew air through her mouth impatiently. "I'll go. There was something weird about her face when she whirled around. I want to see."

She knocked as we all bunched up around the door. Annabeth impatiently pushed us back. "We might scare her again."

_Knock knock._

A few second later:

"What? What do you want?"

"We only came to ask for directions, if that's okay. Sorry if my-friend scared you."

Boyfriend. She was going to say _boyfriend_.

"Ahm…me no speakey English."

"Is she serious?"

"Ron, be quiet."

Annabeth knocked again, saying 'You spoke English the first time, when you asked us what we wanted. Just so you know."

No sound came. Then a bunch of locks started clicking and the door opened just a crack. A single brown eye was visible.

"Damn. Okay, you got me. What address do you need?"

Annabeth repeated what was written on the paper.

"Dude," the girl said, and stuck a hand out, which pointed to the number above her door.

I looked at the paper in Annabeth's hands. The same number as the one on her door.

"You're the demigod Pygmalion's wife told us to visit."

The girl sighed. "So Galatea's alive now, huh? That's great. So, what do you need? I'm kind of busy taking care of something annoying."

"HEY!" Another girl screamed behind the first. The one she'd been arguing with earlier.

"She told us that you could help us out. Galatea did, I mean." Annabeth spoke softly.

"Okay, just don't cause me trouble. I'll help you."

The girl stepped out, and when she was completely outside, I got to get a good look at her face.

And I tried not to gasp.

Holy freaking Poseidon, she was a zombie.

**Me: I know that this won't be the last time I see gamingcraver129. He got away.  
Annabeth: Aw, you stopped fighting.  
Me: *squints at Annabeth* You butthead.  
Annabeth: Anyways, the questions of the day is: What are YOUR opinions? Remember when we were playing Would You Rather? Tell us what you think!  
Me: The questions were: Would you rather accidentally slam your hand down on a telephone message spike OR get the tips of your fingers caught in a paper shredder? Would you rather have to lift 20 pounds with a nose ring OR bite the legs off half a dozen mice? Would you rather use a cheese grater on your knee until you hit bone OR stick a toothpick under your big toe and kick a wall?**


	19. A Very Non-Cuddly Reunion

**Me: Yes, Microsoft Word, I'm sure I spelled Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, and Itsi correct. Jeez.  
Chiron: Your names are just rare, Itsi.  
Me: Nico isn't! It's pretty dang common!  
Chiron: Oh, the readers are here!  
Me: Oh, hey. Here's chapter 19.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

Please excuse Percy's initial reaction. He's an idiot.

Here's the best way to explain to you how she looked: Touch the left side of your lips (_your_ left, obviously). That side of _her_ mouth…was stitched shut with twine. Now pretend you're in front of her. The stitches look lik from left to right. Why only the left side was stitched, I didn't know.

Her eyes were bloodshot, and she had a runny nose. She looked like stereotypical Hades kid material. Ok, yeah, basically she looked like an alcoholic zombie minus the beer belly.

She was just ugly in a _Rise of the Living Dead _kind of way.

Immediately, the demigod flinched, and I suddenly remembered what Galatea had told me: "Don't think of the word _ugly_."

I think I was staring at her the whole time, because the girl blushed, and said "Take a picture, it lasts longer."

I shook my head. I was just embarrassing her. She must look like a freak to normal humans, assuming she hasn't covered it with the Mist or a glamour. She's had enough stares.

I outstretched my hand. "My name is Andy," I said, this time not hesitating on my fake name.

She took my hand and lowered her gaze. Brown hair flopped into her equally brown eyes. "Um, don't laugh, I know it sounds really stupid, but my name's Itsi."

I didn't, but Ron, incredulous, laughed and asked "Like the _spider?_"

"Ron!" Thalia snapped, and she stepped on his foot. "Quit being such an ass!"

"Owie!" Ron squealed. "I was _asking!_"

Itsi scratched her chin sel-conciously. "Yeah, like the spider, I guess." She shivered, and my heart tightened when I realized she must fear spiders as well.

But she kept eyeing my shirt like it was her worst enemy. She might have problems against the colors red and white.

Percy introduced himself, and Itsi's eyes bulged out. "Did you just say your name is Pussy? Like, pussy cat?"

"No, it's _Percy_."

"Oh," Itsi said thoughtfully. "Like the green train in _Thomas and his Friends_."

"Yeah….sure." He probably had no idea what she was talking about.

"I'm Thalia," Thalia said, and Itsi smiled at her.

"I'm Ron," Ron said, and she just frowned.

I was going to tell her why we really needed her help, that she should give us some ambrosia and nectar (and money) so we can get on our way, until a voice behind me said "Hey, Itsi, how do I shut Nero up? He's talking like crazy, making me miss the fight."

_That voice. No, it couldn't be._

Behind me, leaning against the doorframe, was Clarisse herself. She was wearing her orange camp shirt, but she looked almost completely different. She looked taller, stronger, and healthier. She was holding an ugly (flinch from Itsi) bag that had two buttons for eyes. I guessed the zipper was like the mouth.

For about 5 seconds, the only sounds I could make were "Ah…Cla…rii….here?"

She finally noticed me (most likely she heard my oh-so-intelligent mumbling). I had never pictured how our reunion would look. Nothing cliché, I knew, but not just a "Hey," and everything's okay.

I certainly never would have imagined what actually happened: She scowled, threw the bag, Nero, at Itsi, and slammed the door shut.

The slam brought my voice back, and I ran to the door.

"Yo, Clarisse, what the hell?" Itsi snapped, which must have been hard, since a part of her lips were stitched. "Don't slam my door like that!" She threw Nero the Bag at the door.

"Ow, hey!" It said.

Thalia looked at me; I looked at Percy, who looked at Ron. No, we were no looking at each other because a bag talked.

We all ran to the door and banged on it until a younger girl—the one Itsi'd been arguing with earlier—opened the door, looking quite scared.

I looked inside and saw Clarisse packing three bags quickly.

"Clarisse, stop!" I barged in, practically pushing the young girl out of the way just to get in.

"You buttheads better tell me what the Hades is going on here! You shoved Daniela!" That was Itsi screaming, ramming her way into her own apartment.

_Why did how she said that name, "Daniela", sound familiar?_

I ignored that thought and raised my arms to strangle her. I know, I know, out of character for me. _Way _out of character. I'm usually cool, calm, and composed. But lately, life hasn't been going my way, and to stay cool would drive me completely insane, if I wasn't already.

Clarisse was yelling at me to not throttle her, but then Itsi got in front of me.

"Listen, if you want me to help you, you're going to have to apologize to my cousin. You could have broken something!"

I gave her a cold look. "Stitches," I said, reveling in the flinch that word received, "you can shove the _thought_ of an apology up your—"

Suddenly, there was a fist in my face, and I crashed into the wall behind me. I heard a grunt other than mine, and I knew that Itsi, who I will now call Stitches just to piss her off, had gotten punched too. I touched my nose, which was most definitely broken.

"COUCH. NOW." Clarisse barked, so Stitches and I tripped over each other to get to the couch, fearing for our lives. Everyone sat on the only couch in the room. Needless to say, Stitches and I sat as far away from each other as possible.

She mumbled really immature things about me.

Clarisse was the only one who remained standing. She paced the room, rubbing her temples, muttering about stupid girls that act like angry kindergarteners. The she muttered about kindergarteners being more mature.

The little girl I shoved earlier, Daniela, went to the kitchen and brought Stitches and me some ice for our bleeding noses. I immediately felt bad for her.

Clarisse's red face got into mine and everybody else's face one by one. "Listen up, punks, because we are all going to get our shit straight."

**Me: Yeah, I put myself in the story.  
Chiron: They'll understand. You needed an extra character to do some things later in the story. It was either add yourself, or add Nico.  
Me: Before Nico fan girls kill me; I couldn't just RANDOMLY INCORPRATE Nico in. I would have had to make up an excuse for him to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma right then and there.  
Chiron: And she is too lazy to do that.  
Me: Ouch, Chiron. That hurt.**


	20. The Alcoholic Extraordinaire!

**Me: 'Sup, readers? I am proud to announce that we are having a contest to find the most hardcore Leo and Nico fangirls!  
Travis: *reads script* We…already have a….Nico fangirl ready, but…it wouldn't hurt….to…hear…about more!  
Connor: *Cough-slowreader-cough* A few more details will be at the end comments of this chapter!  
Travis: *pouts* Why don't you ask for Travis and Connor fangirls?  
**

**~Percy's POV~ **

Things in life can happen very slow, or very fast, depending on what's going on at the time. Right now, someone ripped off the brakes in life and handed the wheel to a very drunk Dionysus.

"I have my shiznit straight. Tell ANDY to do that!" Itsi said, and then got up. "I'm going to get a drink."

Clarisse grabbed her head and sat her back down. "Shit. Straight."

"Right, right. Crap. Straight. THEN a drink."

Clarisse's nostrils flared, and she shut up.

"Ok. Andy," Clarisse said, pointing at Annabeth. "Say sorry to Daniela." She pointed at the person in question.

"Sorry, Dan-" Annabeth began, but the something in her expression changed, and she shot up to her feet and pointed accusingly at Itsi. "You! You! You were the idiot that asked if I was performing in a movie, when I was being attacked by Gigi the pervy empousae! _Stit_- I mean, _Itsi_, it was you and Daniela! I knew you guys looked familiar!"

Itsi also jumped to her feet. "_Hey!_ I'm not an idi—Holy Pluto on a pogo stick! You ARE that g-"

"SHUT YOUR PIEHOLES!"

Mouths were clamped. Clarisse looked really angry. She rubbed her temples, and she looked at Itsi. "You can get your dang drink now."

"Finally." She got up and walked past Annabeth, giving her a nasty look. Clarisse rolled her eyes at the two of them.

"Percy, I want you guys to leave right now," she said after a while. "You're presence-" she looked at Annabeth, "is disturbing our plans."

My heartbeat quickened. "No, Clarisse! No way! You're just as much a part of this team as Ron! We need you to help us. I don't think we can stand another attack without our friend." These words were true. Clarisse gone was like…like…SOMETHING. A missing puzzle piece? Mac without Cheese?

"Stop thinking about yourself and think about the team. There is no 'I' in 'team'."

Clarisse sneered. "But there is a 'me'."

I slapped my face. Clarisse crossed her arms defiantly, looking like her dad more than ever. "Anyways, I can't go with you. I have to take these two somewhere."

Thalia got angry. "Itsi is easily sixteen or seventeen! Percy and Andy's age," she screamed, giving a sidelong look at the people who didn't know Annabeth was a girl in a boy's body, "so she can drive herself to places."

Daniela giggled, like _Haha, Itsi driving. That's a funny one!_

"Thalia." Clarisse looked serious. "Tell me, do you know what a drunk looks like? What an _alcoholic _looks like?"

Thalia steeled herself. "Trying to strike a nerve, Clarisse? You know dang well my mother was an alcoholic."

"Well, then, you'll understand why I have to go with Daniela and Itsi. Itsi, come back into the living room."

"Whyyy-hic!-yyyyy?" Itsi's voice sounded from the kitchen. "I'm not done!"

Clarisse's silence was all it took for her to come out anyways. Cup in hand, she had a funny look to her face.

"You'se guys look funnnnny," she squinted. "That you, Percy-cat?"

_P-Percy-cat?_ HADES NO!

Clarisse looked pretty smug. "Guys, meet Itsi Cruz, Daughter of Pluto, and Alcoholic Extraordinaire!"

Silence followed that exclamation.

"Objection!" Ron quelled the silence. "Just hide the booze from her. Underage drinking is uncool."

"She has a _special friend_ giving her the happy juice," Clarisse added, giving Itsi a dirty look. Itsi gave her the finger. "That's where we're headed."

Annabeth raised her hand, then realized that was stupid, and put it down. "Where does this 'friend' live?"

"Somewhere not to far from here. It's called Broken Arrow. Actually, Piper used to live around these parts of Oklahoma."

Right. Piper's Cherokee Indian.

"Well, we're going with you guys."

I looked at Annabeth.

"Yaaaay! We're ALL going to SB's house! Together! Let's get ratchy, you guys!"

Clarisse sat down and leaned forward.

"Fine. I mean, Itsi, _no, no_ getting ratchy. I meant fine, as in, fine, we'll all go to SB's house, tell her to stop giving a teenager beer, and continue on this quest together."

Of course Thalia had to be the Bearer of Bad News. "That would make…six of us. Way over the limit of people on a quest."

"Plus me!" Daniela said, raising her hand and looking like she was having an arm spasm. "I'm going to kick SB's butt! I knew a vacation to Vegas was a lie!"

I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Okay," Thalia said, "that would make SEVEN of us. That's even more above the limit."

Ron said something smart for once. "We should handle this after the talk with Itsi's special friend."

"Right," Clarisse said, nodding at Ron. I was surprised she actually acknowledged his presence at all. Maybe, just maybe, the day that she left us, she'd just been having a seriously bad day.

"Hey, you guys _better_ not forget to include me!"

_Who said that?_

"Down here, fool!" I looked between my Reeboks, and there was Nero the talking bag, trying to get my attention.

"H-hi..?"

"Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to pick me up?"

I picked him up.

"Oh, wazzup, Nero?" Itsi asked, looking into her now empty cup. "I'm outta beer. Anyways, Percy-cat, everyone, this is my bag, Nero. He used to be a demi-god son of Mercury whose quest was to steal Venus's Gucci bag. She caught him, and immediately turned him into a fugly magical bag."

"Fugly? I am handsome! Right, Perseus?"

Somewhere in an alternate universe, some other Percy thought of a bag being handsome and later jumped off a building. I was not that Percy.

"Yeah, sure," I said.

"Fine. That's EIGHT of us. Still a lot of people."

Clarisse's attention is to the window.

"Itsi, Disease are here."

Annabeth frowned, and said "Now, I may be dyslexic, but I'm pretty sure that was bad grammar."

Daniela spoke up. "'Disease' is a mean bunch of girls that bully Itsi into doing things for them. They call themselves 'The Z's' because all of their last names end with a 'z'."

"So like, Schwartz, Rodriguez, and Hernandez, for example?" I asked.

"Yeah. But I called them 'Disease' once, and Itsi liked it, so we call them that now. So when we say 'Disease are here' I guess it's an exception to grammar rules. I don't know."

All this was making my head hurt. We needed a subject change, quick.

"Disease? Creative." Ron said, as there was a knock on the door.

Clarisse got up to open the door. "Time to find out what they want now."

**Me: Because I'm not sure there even **_**are **_**any Connor/Travis fangirls!  
Connor: *gasp* The readers are back!  
Travis: *slowly reads script* Just…tell us…why...you are….THE HARDCORE fangirl of either Nico or Leo-  
Connor: OR THE STOLL BROTHERS!  
Travis: In your reviews.  
Me: Or, if you like, you can tell us why you're the HARDCORE fangirl of **_**any**_** PJO boy.  
Travis and Connor: What if there's an Annabeth fanboy out there? What about him? Are you saying fanboys can't enter this?  
Me: …**


	21. Percy Gets Really Jealous!

**Me: Hola, people! I'm back! Sorry I took a long time to update. (Well, it was long to me...)**

**Nico: They probably didn't even notice your absence.**

**Me: Awww...anyways, if you see anything wrong, blame autocorrect!**

**Nico: This is the first chapter typed using her iPod. **

**~Annabeth's POV~**

We decided it was best to leave and let Stitches handle her situation with "Disease".

Thalia stayed behind with Clarisse, just in case she tried to ditch us. With Ron behind Percy and I, we headed to the door. The plan was to rent a hotel room for the night, with the money borrowed from Stitches.

As I exited the apartment, I crashed into one of the "Disease" girls.

"Ow! Watch it, god!" she said, stumbling backwards. She looked up, and smiled coyly. "Why, hi there," she purred as she twirled her hair around her finger.

I knew she was planning to flirt with me. Not only was I _not_ interested because I'm not into girls, but because just one look at her glossy red hair and perfectly manicured nails told me she was the kind of girl that would bring people down just to boost her ego up. Basically, she was like Drew: a total bitch. I didn't even know her, and already I knew that.

Still, I smiled a smile as fake as her nails, a smile that Luke would give to girls that fancied him, but he was not interested in.

"Hi. Are you here to see Sti- I mean, Itsi?"

She almost tripped all over herself just to get closer to me. "Yah, I am. She's gotta do something for me," she answered as she held something up. I recognized it as a leash, and realized that there had been a cute Golden Retriever puppy between us this whole time.

"Anyways, I'm Stacia Schwartz. How do you know Cruz?"

"Andrew Chase. And Itsi and I have mutual friends, so..."

Stacia scoffed. "Wow, I always thought she was a loner. She doesn't have any friends at school."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But who _cares_?" She eyed me up and down.

A hand was placed on my right shoulder. "_Andy_," Percy said, his voice steely, "we should get going. Gotta find a nice hotel before going to SB's house."

Stacia smirked, and then winked. She pulled a pen out of nowhere and wrote her number on my arm. Then she popped a piece of gum in her mouth. "Catch you later."

I looked at the number on my forearm, then at her dog, and finally at her. "Yeah, see you."

Percy pulled me away, and I knew he was insanely jealous. I wasn't flirting with Stacia, but to Percy, it probably sure looked like it.

"Jealous, Percy?" I asked when we were safely out of earshot, knowing he would deny it feverently. Which he did.

"No! I'm just the one person that hates wasting time flirting with a girl."

I stopped walking. "Percy, I wasn't flirting."

He looked away, and I realized that never before had I ever seen him jealous. It was always me that was giving other girls cold looks whenever we were out. So seeing Percy seething was just a little refreshing.

"Sure," was all he replied.

I wanted to assure him that I hadn't been flirting with Stacia, but like a punch to the gut I remembered that we were no longer dating. He shouldn't care whether I flirted or not.

**~LINE BREAKER! -DO NOT CROSS!- LINE BREAKER!~**

I was standing in the hotel shower, thinking about...everything. Whether this quest was worth it. Whether we should just forget Stitches, jack Clarisse in the middle of the night, and bail.

Was this whole detour some kind of joke? Apollo sent us to a drunk daughter of Pluto, allowing us to think that we were getting sidetracked for something important.

If Galatea had just given us the address without a word, I would have assumed that Apollo had sent us to Eastland Ornamentals to get Stitches' address and find Clarisse, end of story. But she didn't. What Galatea had said told me otherwise. "_The demigod you are about to seek. She has sight that might help you- no, that WILL help you- on your quest._"

Galatea! _What_ sight?! I want to know what's so da-

Percy knocked on the bathroom door. "Annabeth, hurry up."

Oh, right, they need to shower too. I finished up, put some clothes on, and walked out. As soon as Percy and Ron finished showering, we all got in bed: Ron on the actual bed, Percy on the left side on the floor, and me on the right side of the bed, on the floor as well.

I kept on thinking about life, and soon my thoughts drifted to the past, back when I was on the run with Thalia and Luke.

I fell asleep before I knew it.

At first, I couldn't tell where I was in my dream, exactly, only vaguely sensing I was in a car. Soon the darkness faded, and, just like I had thought, I was inside a car. It smelled like pizza.

Stitches was at the wheel, looking (possibly not, though) sober. I was sitting in the shotgun seat, with Clarisse sitting in the passenger seat directly behind me, busy giving Stitches directions. Percy was to Clarisse's left sitting in the middle, and Thalia was behind Stitches.

At the back, sitting next to a stack of old-looking pizza boxes, was Ron with Stacia's cute little puppy. I looked back to Thalia.

She looked bad. Sweat was rolling down her forehead, onto her nose. She gasped for breath like she had been underwater for a long time. I looked around, wondering why the Hades nobody else was noticing this.

Clarisse was busy with the map, and Ron was having fun teaching the puppy how to play dead.

Percy and Stitches were arguing about which pony from _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic _was the best.

"APPLEJACK IS AWESOMER!" Percy kept shouting.

"NO WAY MAN! IT'S FLUTTERSHY!"

What was wrong with Thalia? She could have a really bad fever. But every other minute, she had this awful cramp that would make her double over and cause her to accidentally slam her face onto the back of Stitches' chair.

Just as I was going to reach out and ask her if she was okay, I had this weird sensation, and woke up.

I looked at the clock, which read 10:54 am.

I got dressed and then began to wake Ron and Percy.

"Guys, get up. Time to go back to Stitches' apartment."

Percy's eyes opened a crack. "Who's 'Stitches'?"

"Um, that's Itsi."

He mumbled something, but he got up and helped me with Ron.

Once I was done helping Ron with his shoes, we left the hotel and stopped by McDonald's to buy breakfast with the leftover money.

Of course, as soon as we were outside with all our bags, Ron had to pee. So we waited for him for outside.

By the time Ron came back, I had 10 new phone numbers on my arms, and another 10 inside my pockets.

"Aren't you popular?" He asked, grinning once he saw them all.

Percy shouldered his backpack and got a firmer grip on the McDonald's breakfast bags. He turned on his heel and started walking in the direction of Stitches' apartments. Ron followed, and I just stood there.

I had never imagined Percy being jealous before, and though it was amusing to see him like that at first, now it was like having really painful heartburn.

Percy stopped walking and took a big breath. He turned around and looked at me. "Well, aren't you coming?" he asked, a grin spreading from ear to ear on his face.

I walked up to him and smiled back. "Yeah...yeah, I am."

I was instantly reminded of why I fell in love with him.

**Me: So, in the last chapter, I asked people to tell me who they fangirl/fanboy for. I chose the top three entries: from BookLover48:** Percy! 1. I've been on his side since he was twelve! 2. He just... i don't know...DEVELOPED throughout our journey together, I loved him from the start, but it was fun to watch him screw up and fix it again, almost like my own child. 3. Because he's so funny and sweet, Annabeth's SO lucky!** She said even more, and trust me, she said some pretty hardcore-Percy-fangirl stuff!**

**Nico: And from ShadowandMadonna**: Well, I'm a hardcore Nico Fangirl because I like my boys BAD, and secluded. I've been a loner for a good 7 or 8 years, so I like the lonely and outcast. I know what it feels like to be secluded and bullied, and different, so I like guys that feel the same way. **Wow, I have a fangirl!**

**Me: Chill, bro! Yes, you have a fangirl! And from Hugs6: **  
I have kissed Leo's picture. I have. No lie. I have sent Die! PMs to other Leo dating fangirls. I have argued and claimed and even risked being turned into pepperoni pizza by a certain child of Athena for my right of Leo.

**Nico: Tell us who you think is the biggest fangirl is, and also tell us what you thought of this chapter!**


	22. Caution! Nine People On Board!

**Me: Agh, I forgot to mention Yaya the Elf's review. She said that she is an Octavian fangirl!  
Frank: Oc...tav...ian...?  
Me: I know right?! He has hope!  
Frank: I wonder if I have fangirls.  
Me: *checks reviews, sees there is none mentioned* Umm...sure...there are...?  
Frank: Yay!  
Me: *whispers* Poor Frank.**

**~Percy's POV~  
**

No, I was not jealous. Not at all. Annabeth wasn't my girlfriend anymore, so I didn't really care if she wanted to talk to other people. Not even if they were other girls. We were on this quest to fix everything, so THEN we could get back together and live happily ever after.

Plus, it would have been pretty pathetic of me to get jealous because Annabeth talked to a GIRL.

We got to the apartment with no problem, which was surprising, actually. There were no monster attacks, no mental breakdowns, nothing.

Everyone that had stayed at Itsi's house was already outside: Clarisse, Thalia, Daniela, Nero, and Itsi. They had been standing outside waiting for us to arrive.

There was a new addition to our motley group: the dog that had been with that Stacia girl yesterday. It was a Golden Retriever, possibly no more than four months old, bouncing around without a leash.

I got on my knees and the puppy ran to me, licking my face everywhere. I immediately became nostalgic, missing Ms. O'Leary, my amazing hellhound. I hoped Grover knew that she liked to play fetch every morning. I rubbed the puppy behind the ears,and it licked me in the face once more.

"'Sup, little guy? What's your name?" I said affectionately, and looked up at Itsi in question, who was now sober. I know that because I noticed she only blushes when she doesn't drink.

"His name is Cujo."

You would never believe how fast I got up and moved away from the dog. "Did you just say his name is _Cujo_?"

She chuckled under her breath. "Yeah, but don't worry. He's nothing like the dog in the movie."

I wasn't very convinced. I had seen the movie "_Cujo_" before, with my mom in our cabin in Montauk. I didn't sleep for three days straight after that.

I returned to the dog and started rubbing his head again, only more gingerly this time. "So this is that girl's—Stacia's—dog?"

She nodded.

"For how much?"

"About two hundred bucks."

I choked on the saliva I was about to swallow. "_Two hundred? American dollars? No Monopoly money_?"

"No…"

"Seriously? You don't have to do anything…_kinky_…or perverted? You just have to take care of the dog?"

Her face turned a dark red color. "No, dude, nothing perverted."

Just to make sure, I asked "So you don't have to strip naked for her or anything?"

She became so flustered that Clarisse had to answer for her. "Percy! Damn! All she has to do is take care of the dog!"

Thalia spoke up. "Apparently, Stacia's pretty rich. Two hundred dollars could be nothing to her."

I looked at Cujo. If my mom and I had that kind of money when I had been growing up, a lot of things would have been different.

"Still…two hundred?"

Itsi nodded, and finally regained the ability to speak. "But it's two hundred for the whole week, so…"

Annabeth's eyebrows passed her hairline. "Why so long?"

"Stacia hates animals. Cujo belongs to her dad, but he's always on business trips during the weekdays. So he leaves them to Stacia, who takes him to me to take care of him. Then on Friday she pays me for caring for him and tells her dad that she was a very responsible girl taking care of her daddy's dog." She shrugged. "Whatever. Cujo is like my dog now, and I love him, so no complaints here."

I nodded. "Ok, subject change. How are we heading to SB's house?"

Nero the Bag opened his zipper-mouth. "Well, we have a pretty big group, so I advised we buy a GMC Yukon XL 1500. It seats up to nine, and it's so dang roomy!"

"Where do you get this money?" Ron asked, like as if he just asked Itsi the secret to immortality.

"Like you already know, Stacia's pretty rich. Sometimes she doesn't even make sure she hands me two hundred. Sometimes she gives me five hundred. I don't say anything. Not like she's going to miss it."

Dang! I wish I had known a girl like _that _growing up, to make me take care of her pets!

"So, who's driving?" The little girl, Daniela, asked. The expression on her face told me that she would allow the puppy to drive as long as it meant to keep her alcoholic cousin off the wheel.

I pictured us getting pulled over by a cop and seeing his face as he realized that a dog was driving the Yukon.

"Seriously, guys. Who's driving?" Daniela asked, making a _seriously, I will allow ANYONE except Itsi! _face.

"I can," Thalia said. "I promise I drive better than Zöe Nightshade."

Only I laughed at that joke, because I was the only one here right now with her during the quest to rescue Annabeth from Atlas' hands.

We climbed into the Yukon, and strapped ourselves in. Thalia in the front seat, Clarisse was shotgun, me sitting behind Clarisse, with Itsi in the middle and Daniela sitting on her lap, and then Annabeth right behind Thalia. Ron was sitting in the third row with Cujo and Nero, who Itsi just threw there.

I noticed that Itsi didn't wear her seatbelt. I can't remember why, but I didn't say anything about it.

"Okay," Thalia breathed out, looking at Clarisse. "Tell me where to go."

Clarisse made an ugly face. "I don't know where SB lives. Ask Itsi."

The person in question crossed her arms defiantly, which reminded me of a stubborn four-year-old. She shook her head. "I'm not telling you how to get to the house of my booze provider. You're just trying to ruin my happiness. I'm not letting you stop my intake of beer!"

Looking at her right now, you'd think she was just a teenager pretending like she liked getting drunk. Nothing really gave away that she was an alcoholic, except the slight unhealthy skin tone you could only notice if you _really _looked at her. In fact, she looked nothing like Gabe at all. She was missing the beer gut, and her skin tone wasn't too obviously unhealthy. She had no skin _disorders_, as far as I could tell. I didn't know how old she was, but I'm pretty sure the alcohol hadn't affected what age she looked like…yet.

"Hey! I know where SB lives! I'll tell you guys! Just follow my instructions!" Daniela said, waving her hand frantically.

"Traitor," Itsi muttered.

Daniela stuck out her tongue and Thalia told her to start giving directions as soon as we were off the driveway.

I think I noticed too many things that day. My mind stumbled around from thought to thought like a drunk Itsi at a college party. Anyways, I'm saying this because—maybe I was looking into it too much, but—Thalia was sweating. Not the kind of sweating you do on a hot day (which it was). It was the kind of sweating you do when you're stuck with a cold. An…unhealthy…kind of sweat. But Thalia wasn't saying anything, so my mind wandered off into another thought after a little while.

There was an awkward silence for a little while, but Ron started singing "_Who Let The Dogs Out?"_ to Cujo, and after the first verse Daniela joined.

After a few minutes, Daniela stopped singing and told us that we were on the highway that led to SB's house, that all that was left was to take an exit and drive into a certain neighborhood.

As we were about to do exactly that—to take the exit—something happened.

Thalia cried out in sheer pain and tried to hold her gut. She slammed her head into the steering wheel, causing it to turn violently to the left, and we were dangerously close to driving off the road.

"Whoa!" Clarisse shouted as Thalia picked her head up in one jerky movement, only to bring it back down and slam it into the steering wheel again.

Clarisse came to the rescue and took off her seatbelt to be able to reach the wheel and take control of the car.

But she lost her footing and grabbed onto the wheel for balance, accidentally jerking the wheel to the right this time, making me crash into Itsi. The Yukon ran along the rail separating the right lanes from the left ones, creating sparks as the people in the front seat were having trouble getting things under control.

Thalia's head turned to the right at a painful angle, and her foot slammed into the gas, causing us to speed up even more. Clarisse was getting up, but Thalia's arm slammed down onto her like a spasmic anchor and Clarisse was right back where she had started.

From where she was, Clarisse grabbed the wheel, and, even though she couldn't see over the dash, she pulled on it and made the Yukon get back on the road, but it took up two lanes.

Thalia screamed, and her foot spasmed, causing her to slam on the gas once more.

In the confusion I checked behind and in front of us. Ahead, there was a blue minivan with a sign that read "Caution! Baby on board!"

Before we crashed into the minivan, I subconciously checked the speedometer: Let's just say we were going _really, really fast_.

I screamed before we ran over the people's car, hoping we didn't kill any babies.

**Me: Is it just me or was this a really nostalgic chapter?  
Frank: Huh?  
Me: I mean, Percy brought up his mother, Grover, Ms. O'Leary, Zoe Nightshade, her father Atlas, and Gabe. Lots of mentioning of people...you know...?  
Frank: I guess so. Anyways, we tallied the votes for who is the fangirliest reader of this story, and so far, Hugs6 is in the lead. We're giving you one more chance to vote, because the winner will get...  
Me: Something. I don't know what they'll get. Maybe just a chapter dedicated to them.  
Frank: Ok! Well, that was it for this chapter! Review and help us reach 200 reviews!**


	23. Dead People That Look Into Your Soul

**Me: Wazzah, people?  
Percy: We're back!  
Me: Yeah, I've actually been receiving homework from my teachers, so that's why I haven't updated as early as I used to. I'm actually doing it.  
Percy: Speaking of homework, can you help me with mine?  
Me: *flabbergasted* Um, ok?  
Percy: Ok, it says "Graph '(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(200x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5'."  
Me: *face twitch***

**~Annabeth's POV~**

My head smashed against the driver's seat as we crashed.

I vaguely heard Percy scream, and I think that scared me more than the thought of dying. I'd never heard him scream with such fear.

Stitches flew out of her seat and smacked her face into the radio of the Yukon. On instinct, I grabbed her by the back of her shirt and made her sit upright again.

Thalia's airbag had reacted to the crash and didn't let me see how bad the crash was. I wanted to know if we killed someone. I wanted to get out of the car, to survey the damage, so I opened the door on my left, and fell out of the vehicle, making me land on my knees. I looked behind me, and felt nauseated.

The Yukon was on top of the back of the minivan at an 80 degree angle. There was no fire, though, _thank Athena_.

I rose to my feet, and stumbled my way to the driver's seat of the minivan. On my way there, I heard giggling that seemed to come from the bushes to my direct left. I headed there first, and beat the bush with the stuffed duck, but I found nothing. So I limped over to the minivan.

The driver was—_had been_—a woman, maybe late 20's, early 30's. She had died with her head on the steering wheel, blood dripping from her forehead as she stared down at absolutely nothing. She started to slip off the wheel, which was slick with blood, and fell at an awkward angle, her eyes managing to capture mine.

I gasped, and looked away quickly. I shut my eyes and tried to erase that image, the image of dead eyes looking into my soul, but I just…couldn't! Those eyes were going to haunt me forever!

With my eyes still closed, I walked around the minivan to the right sliding door. I opened the door, simultaneously opening my eyes too, and found an overturned baby car seat. There was no sound, and I presumed the baby had died with its mom.

I didn't move. I _couldn't _move. I mean, I've seen death, lots of it. I thought I'd be used to it. I've killed monsters and villains, because they had it coming and actually knew what they were doing.

But this…was seriously another matter. They never had training, didn't know that monsters lurked around every corner. They were normal _mortals_, a mother and child, maybe going to the grocery store. And now, they were dead.

I shut my eyes again, and focused on wringing the duck's head and not on the dead people, when I heard a whisper in my head.

_Check again, Annabeth._

I snapped my eyes open, and looked around. Yes, it really had been in my head, because no one was near me.

_Mother? _I thought. _What do you mean, _check again?

She didn't answer back, and just when I was about to ask again, the back door of the Yukon opened up, and Ron jumped out, virtually unscathed. I spun around, and smiled, because for some reason, his being ok made me happy. Don't ask why.

"Ron!" I shouted, waving him over. He limped his way over, like I'd done not to long ago, and when he finally reached me, he spread his arms and his eyes begged for a hug.

"I'm not a hugger," I coughed out, but Ron just took me in his arms and gave me a noogie.

"I know, Annabeth! I'm just glad you're alive!"

For ten really uncomfortable seconds, we stayed like that, him hugging and me frozen like a grocery store turkey, until finally I pushed him away.

"Ron, go inside the vehicle in look around. M-my mother…Athena…she told me to check, even though I already had."

He nodded, his face serious, and he climbed into the minivan. His hands passed over a bunched up blanket, and I heard a baby crying.

"The baby!" I hissed, and like lightning Ron picked up the baby and hopped out of the van.

He handed it to me, and I unwrapped the child. I was surprised to see that it was a baby girl that couldn't be older than four months. She looked like I had when I was a baby: wild and curly blonde hair, and when the baby opened her eyes, I looked back at intense gray eyes that couldn't belong to a baby. They unnerved me a little bit, so I looked at Ron, who was sitting on the asphalt, his back leaning against the minivan.

BANG!

I jumped at the sound, and looked at our crashed car. It was just Clarisse, with Thalia and an unconscious Daniela in her arms. Cujo bounded out, too, whimpering.

Clarisse set the two girls down a few feet away from me, and came over to sit with Ron. She sighed, and looked at me. "Thalia…what happened to her?"

I handed Ron the baby girl, and stepped around Daniela, who was coming to, and bent down to check on Thalia. She didn't look good at all. Just like in my dream, sweat was pouring down her face, and every now and then she'd have an arm/leg spasm. Her eyes would snap open, and she'd be gasping for breath.

I got a nasty taste in my mouth, and Athena spoke in my mind again. _The Fleece, Annabeth. The Fleece._

Fear crawled up my back. The Fleece?

The corners around my eyes began going black, and I felt like slipping away, but a tug on my shirt brought me back. Daniela was now fully awake, and she asked me, "Percy? Itsi? Where are they?"

She might as well have punched me in the stomach, because the realization pushed me back with such force that I fell on my butt.

I shouldn't have worried, though, because five seconds later, Percy's door swung open. He crawled out with Nero in his hands and Itsi stumbled after shortly.

"Food...beer…" Stitches moaned.

Percy flopped down, and looked at me. His eyes widened. "Ann—Andy! Your nose! It's broken!"

"Huh?" I asked, and touched it. Holy Zeus, _it was! _Of course, after that, it began throbbing. I wished he hadn't even mentioned it, because the last thing I needed right then was a broken nose.

Clarisse went to check on Thalia again, and came back with some ice.

"Where'd you get the ice?" I asked as I put some on my face.

"Tell you later. Right now, we need to heal up, because Daniela told me that _that _is SB's house." She pointed to a fairly large house that came with its own gate.

Percy sighed. "I think Thalia is the only one seriously—_is that a baby in Ron's arms?_"

I chuckled a little bit, and explained to him what happened.

He went to check on the mother, and came back with tears in his eyes. He looked at me, and I nodded. "Saw it too," I choked out.

Clarisse looked like she was focusing really hard on her boots, and finally she said, "Okay, let's get going. SB needs to be told some things about what not to give children."

"I'm not a child," Stitches complained, and nobody listened to her.

Ron handed me the girl, and we began to head to this mysterious SB's house. Then, on to fixing what Riley ruined.

**Me: Hey, Percy?  
Percy: I'm not talking to you.  
Me: Sorry, jeez! I just didn't know how to graph that!  
Percy: *sigh* Fine. What do you want?  
Me: If I were a panda, what would you do?  
Percy: Hmm….I'd shoot you in the head, turn you into a coat, and wear you every day.  
Me: *another face twitch* Percy, stop kidding.  
Percy: Who said I was kidding?  
Me: Poaching jokes aren't funny.  
Percy: They are when they're about you.**


	24. Spongebobeniqua

**Me: -And she was all like, "I am not." So he was like, "You are." So she said "No, I'm not." So he responded, "You are!" So she said, "Yeah…I kinda am."  
Octavian: *bored* No. Way.  
Me: Seriously! So I asked her "Who the F are you?"  
Octavian: And she said…?  
Me: She asked me "Who the F are **_**you?**_**" CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!  
Octavian: Holy mother of Apollo, someone kill me.**

**~Percy's POV~**

SB was throwing a huge party.

Not, like, _Olympian party_ huge, but enough to look like it was a party collaboration between Paris Hilton and Mariah Carey.

Everything was pink. Either this man, SB, had an obsession with the color pink, or this was a 16-year-old girl's party. It made Thalia look even sicker than she already was, which is, believe me, a lot.

As soon as the two big guys guarding the front door saw our alcoholic friend, they opened the doors. They frowned at everyone else.

"Chill, dudes, they're with me," Itsi said with authority.

"The dog. Put a leash on it or you cannot come in," one bouncer said. Itsi frowned and put Cujo's collar on. He whimpered sadly.

They waved us in.

"Feeling high and mighty?" Annabeth asked, and the bouncer that hadn't spoken raised a bushy eyebrow when he saw that she—he—was holding the baby.

Itsi blushed and looked down at her shoes. "Nah, they only know me because of all the times they've had to kick me out. Right, Sergei and Brutus?"

The bouncers remained quiet.

"SB is on the second floor, usually, so let's head up," Itsi pointed to a flight of stairs.

As we passed a bar, Itsi grabbed a bottle and mumbled "Ooh, nice, _Chivas Regal Royal Salute_! Thought these were all gone."

"Huh?" I asked, and looked at Clarisse. She didn't know either.

Ron whispered in my ear, "A really expensive Scotch."

Oh.

Itsi opened up Nero and tried to put the whole bottle in there.

Clarisse nabbed it and put it on the nearest table. "Oh, hell no, we are going to make you quit that stuff."

"But-but-but…Chivas Regal!" _[Put the word "fluffykins" in your review if you saw this!]_

Clarisse dragged her up the stairs, and Daniela took over from there. "Itsi's taken me here a few times, when I didn't know she was coming for the alcohol. SB's quarters are right over here."

We walked down a fancy hallway with a bunch of paintings of old guys, and I was about to look away, when something caught my eye.

There was an oil on canvas on the wall, and the man on there…I recognized him. He had black hair and a stubbly chin, tenderly holding a beautiful black woman as he toasted in front of a huge group of (surprise surprise) more old guys. It took me a while to really put my finger on who it was, because he was smiling and not fat in this picture, but finally I had it.

"Aha! Mr. D! That guy is Dionysus!"

The group gathered around.

"Haha, that's funny, why is he holding SB?"

I looked at Daniela after she said that, then back at the picture. "_That _is SB? _That extremely good-looking woman?_"

Annabeth huffed and returned to walking to SB's room. "Whatever, guys, let's just get this thing over with. We have stuff to do."

Ron nudged me with a funny look on his face. "She's jeeeeealous," he whispered.

I chuckled, and looked at the painting once more.

"Yeah," Daniela answered me after a bit. "You expected a man?"

I nodded. Daniela grabbed my hand and smiled. I smiled back, awkwardly, and together joined everyone at the door that supposedly leads to SB's headquarters.

Itsi was about to open it, when she stopped and looked at us. "Okay, guys. Rules for meeting SB. One: Please look at SB in the eyes when you greet her. If you don't she'll whup your butt. Two ties in with one: Do not look at her boobs. They're big, but not eye magnets."

Some one laughed, but it was short lived when Itsi continued.

"Three: When SB uses her real name, DO. NOT. LAUGH. If you want to live, just do _not_."

Annabeth looked at me in confusion, like, _what could be so funny_?

Clarisse opened the door and held it open as everyone entered.

It was just a bedroom. It was actually pretty average, compared to the rest of the house, if you didn't count the extremely fancy bed. It was huge, and could possibly hold a family of six. Drapes hung down elegantly, and I found myself slowly walking to it.

Daniela grabbed my arm. "Four: Do not touch SB's bed."

I stepped back, and let Daniela lead me to a closet.

"_This_ is SB's real door to her headquarters. This was just something to confuse people like thieves. Brace yourselves."

"She…she works in a closet?" Thalia asked.

When the door was opened, I saw a huge room. It was like Grand Central Station, only way busier, like the New York Stock Exchange. People ran here and there, exiting and entering through various places. I think I spotted a few dryads handing a few envelopes to a satyr, who in turn handed them to what I took to be their boss.

Oh, gods, _their boss. _As soon as my eyes landed on her, my heart thumped like crazy. She was amazing, beautiful, cute—

"Percy! What are you doing?!"

_Huh? What?_

"Yo, Percy-cat, you're drooling over SB, aren't you?"

I wiped my face, realizing that I _had _been drooling. I looked back the boss, SB, sure the same thing wouldn't happen again, but-but—

"Seaweed Brain!"

Something soft hit me on the back of my head.

"Ah! Jeez!" I cried out, ducking out of the way as Annabeth swung her duck at me again.

"Calm down, Seaweed Brain! Gods!" She hit me one more time.

"Whoa whoa whoa, ok!" I held my hands up in a feeble attempt to stop the stuffed animal from hitting me.

Nero mumbled something, and Daniela unzipped his mouth.

"Stop delaying things! Your quest is what's important right now, and you're taking too much time to just go to that woman and tell her to stop giving a teenager liquor!"

Thalia managed to say "He's right. Let's—" she coughed, "get to it already."

I steeled myself, and looked at SB. The attraction was still there, but I was still in control of myself. So far so good. "Let's go."

The closer we got to SB's desk, the busier and busier this place seemed. More people were running around doing errands here than around the entrances. Now it _seriously _looked like the New York Stock Exchange.

Finally, after a while, we reached her desk.

"—And he wants ten loads of it, ok? Don't mess it up, Guilliame."

"_Oui, madame, _I won't get it wrong again."

I stepped closer to make her notice that we had business with her.

A phone rang. She saw me and held up her finger to tell me she'll be with me in a minute.

"Hermes Express, Broken Arrow Location, Spongebobeniqua speaking."

WHOA WHOA WHOA.

"Yes….uh-huh….one? Just one? Ok. Yes. Ok. Thank you, your delivery will be there tomorrow." She hung up and looked at me with curiosity.

"Hmm?"

_Spongebobeniqua, Spongebobeniqua, Spongebobeniqua, Spongebobeniqua, Spongebobeniqua._

I took a breath to laugh, but Daniela kicked me in the shins, pleading with me not to laugh. I bit my tongue and tried to talk, but I just couldn't. I looked at Clarisse, hoping she would understand that right then, I couldn't speak a word.

She did understand, because she looked at Spongebobeniqua straight in the eye. "Hi."

"Hello. You are?" she asked Clarisse with a knowing smile.

Clarisse stepped to the left and put Itsi in the front. "Clarisse. Listen, you've been giving her alcohol."

"Yes… And?"

"Lady, that's wrong. Even my dad has better morals than that."

Spon—I mean—SB sniffed the air. "I smell Ares, Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, Pluto, and—"

A receipt book hit Spongebobeniqua in the face.

I spun and saw Ron's arm returning to his side.

"Dude!" I shouted. "What was that?"

"The-ther-there was a…fly…on her face?"

Spongebobeniqua got up, outraged. "I believe it's best if you all leave now. But Itsi, your delivery. Follow me."

Clarisse grabbed her arm. "No, SB, she's not having that anymore. That's all we came here for. It may seem like a really big waste of time, to come here for that and only that, but this crap is messed up." She dragged Itsi behind her, heading for the exit.

"Don't lie, La Rue. You're here because you've heard."

Thalia looked up, her face still sweaty. "Heard? Heard what?"

Spongebobeniqua shrugged. "Can't tell you. You're leaving anyways, aren't you? Too bad, I had lots of things to tell _Andy_, Clarisse, Percy, and Thalia. Oh, and _Ron._"

I pulled out my sword. People that know our names like that are usually threats. "How do you know our names? We _never _told you our names."

Spongebobeniqua smiled again, and this time she wasn't very attractive. "Apollo tells me things. If you're interested, follow me. If you don't want to find out what information I have for you, then the exit is right over there."

Annabeth hesitated. "But…if I delay this quest any longer…my soul…"

Spongebobeniqua walked over to Annabeth. She held her hand and whispered, "Will become accustomed to a male body. I know. But it's only one hour. After that, I'll arrange transportation and supplies so that you can fix what has been broken."

Annabeth looked at me, then at the floor.

"I'm going."

"Me too," Clarisse said, angrily.

Thalia coughed, and shook her head. "You don't have anything for me."

"Oh, but I do. I can tell you why you're sick. _Why you killed a woman_."

Those powerful words knocked her back into a nymph, making her drop fruit all over the floor.

"Ah, gods! I'm so- I'm sorry!" she apologized to the nymph, who tried to assure her that it was ok. I ran to help he up, but she shoved my hand away and got up herself.

"I did not kill her! It was an accident!"

"Manslaughter is still killing someone, Miss Grace."

I pointed my sword at her face. "Stop harassing her. It's my fault, too, for not having volunteered to drive."

SB shrugged carelessly. "Well, then, follow me, because I have very, very important stuff."

**Octavian: This chapter was done without any previous planning, so if you didn't like it, sorry, Itsi typed it like crazy.  
Me: Yeah, this one person threatened to go "Hermione-Draco" on me.  
Octavian: Is that a Harry Potter thing?  
Me: I looked it up on the Internet. It is a Harry Potter thing.  
Octavian: Ok, well, anything to tell the readers before this chapter ends?  
Me: Tell me who your least favorite character from the PJO or HOO series is, and if you could be kind enough, please explain why!  
Octavian: Ok, bye now.**


	25. Black Rock Shooter

**Me: Oh, hi there.  
Grover: It's been a while, hasn't it?  
Me: As you've probably noticed, the title is a little weird.  
Grover: Sometimes we're going to name a chapter after a certain song on Itsi's playlist. **_**Sometimes**_**.  
Me: Sometimes the title will actually tie in with the story. Thank you for reading this chapter…enjoy.**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

I wondered what SB had planned.

I wondered if what she was going to tell me would be _relevant_. This was taking time out of the quest, and I was getting pretty darned impatient. I mean, everyone knew that whatever was told to them, it was because it was vital to that person. Just a few minutes ago, SB told Clarisse "_It's because you've heard._" Those four words were enough to make Clarisse look like she'd seen a ghost, so she must have known what SB was going to tell her.

We walked down a narrow hallway, the walls covered in paintings, just like the one we'd walked through earlier. SB opened a door that lead us to a dark room, and she stood at the door until all of us were inside. She closed the door for us all.

"I will talk to all of you separately—"

"—_Stinky, huh? So I almost—"_

There were two nymphs in the room with us, one with bright red hair and freckles, and another with hair as dark as Hades'. They were chatting excitedly, braiding flowers into each other's hair. According to SB's face, they weren't supposed to be in there at all.

"You two have three seconds to get out of this room before I fire you."

The two only needed one second. They left the room in a swoosh, the only sign that they'd ever been in the room the flowers that fell of their heads and the basket that had originally held them.

SB took a few seconds to compose herself again, and resumed speaking. "I will speak to all of you separately because I want to give you the choice of telling your friends what I told you. Basically, you decide if you want to share the information. I will be quick, so you can return to your quest. Thalia, you're first. Follow me."

She led Thalia into another room (this place seems to have an endless supply of rooms), and firmly shut the door.

I walked around, looking at the walls, which were actually just bookshelves. They were packed with books large and small, of many different colors. I wasn't really looking for a book to read, but I found a book with an interesting title: "Sopem rfo Sothleu." I pulled it out, and stared at this foreign book with such a weird name.

After a while, though, I shook my head, and realized that the book was in English. "Poems for the Soul" was what it was. Sometimes I forget I have dyslexia.

I opened it to a random page with a short poem. In about 3 minutes I managed to figure out that it said:

_I see what no one else does,_

_What you're hiding from me._

_You have something inside you,_

_More than the eye can see._

I made a face, because that was a really bad poem, even by my standards. I put the book back, when I heard a voice in the back of my mind. _The demigod, the one you are about to seek…she has sight that might help you._

That was Galatea's voice. She had said something about sight. That Stitches has "sight." I looked back at the person in question, and watched as she tried to stick her tongue out. She was having trouble, because of her half-stitched lips, but finally she managed to do it by pushing her tongue out through the part that isn't stitched. [Put the word _arigato _in your review if you saw this!]

"_Smashing!_" She whispered to herself, and I mentally laughed at Galatea's words. True sight? Ha!

I heard a creak and Thalia stepped out, looking even sicker than before. She immediately looked for a chair and sat down. I ran to her side with a worried look on my face.

"Thalia…are you ok?"

"I'm-I can't…no… I'm not fine," she said, and lightly pushed me away. I tried not to look hurt, because I didn't know what news SB had given her. Maybe she just needed space to let the info sink.

Next was Clarisse. She frowned at SB as they walked inside the other room, trying to look tough, but I saw her fingers trembling.

I talked with Nero for a while, as I waited for Clarisse to come out. After a while, I got bored and tried to put the stuffed demon duck inside him, for no absolute reason. Guess what? It fit.

By the way, that shouldn't have been possible. Nero was the size of a fanny pack, while the duck was the size of a computer screen. I frowned to myself, and stuck my arm inside Nero. It went all the way in, up to my shoulder, and I couldn't reach the other side. I pulled out my hand quickly.

"I am a magical bag, Andy. Not only do I talk, but the inside of me is the size of a large room."

"No way," I mumbled, and opened his mouth wider. I peeked inside, and gasped, because he was telling the truth. The room inside Nero was the size of a small classroom, and not only that but it was also well lit.

It was kind of like Narnia, only instead of a wardrobe it's a bag, and instead of a beautiful land, there was a room that smelled like mothballs.

I put Nero down, and stared at him in awe. And here I had thought he was just a useless chatty bag.

"Itsi has a whole bunch of stuff inside. Medical supplies, because she's kind of a healer, and old bottles of wine."

I shook my head. "Why does that girl even drink?"

Nero sighed. "Why do _other_ people drink? Some to forget their past, some to ignore the present, and others because they just want to drink for the hell of it."

"You think she just gets drunk for no reason?"

"Yeah, I do."

I rubbed my chin, wondering why anyone would do that. Just throw away their lives for a hangover.

I smelled sweat behind me, and I turned to find Clarisse, rubbing her temples like mad. SB silently motioned for Percy to follow her.

"Almost done," SB said before she closed the door.

I slunk off next to Clarisse. "So, what's up? You want to tell me what SB told you?"

She shook her head. "Nah."

I nodded, pretending to be understanding, but on the inside I was punching her in the face with my fist! I was getting impatient, and _nobody _was talking to me except a _bag_.

***A While Later***

Percy stepped out of the room, and he was smiling. Cujo bounded towards him, and Percy absentmindedly petted him.

I walked up to him and asked him why he was so happy.

He looked at me. "My mom…she might be pregnant!"

"What?" I asked, because that's not what I had expected at all.

"You heard me! I might get to be a big brother to _two_ people! Wait 'till Tyson hears this!" He plopped down on a sofa and closed his eyes. He looked really excited, and that made _me_ really happy. I wished we could all receive good news from SB.

"Annabeth and Itsi, you're next."

I gave SB a stupefied look. "Why _both _of us?"

"Because you two's news is connected," she said, wagging her finger between me and Stitches, "and I want to get done with this quickly. Now let's go."

When I settled down on a couch in the new little room SB led us to, she began to talk. "All right, Andy, Itsi, I know you're both wondering what you two have to do with each other."

"Damn straight," Stitches said, nervously twiddling her thumbs.

"Get on with it," I said, leaning forward with anticipation. "Tell us what you need us to know."

She nodded, and sat on the corner of a desk. "Andy, do you remember what Galatea told you that day on the shop?"

I wheezed, and asked her "How do you know about that?"

She waved off my question with a flick of her wrist. "I'm a witch. I know things. But do you? Do you recall what she told you?"

I huffed. A _witch_, like Circe. No wonder I hadn't liked this lady from the start. "Yeah, she told me that the demigod I was seeking—because of Apollo—was somehow going to help me. All I got was…was _her._" I pointed at Stitches, who looked offended at the way I had said "_her"._

SB looked at Stitches, and then back at me. "She _is_ going to be helpful. Watch." She turned from me to Stitches. "Itsi, what do you see when you look at Andy?"

Stitches gave me a once-over and said "Blond hair and kind of, like, gray-ish eyes…?"

"No, be specific."

"I don't know what you mean," Stitches said, looking really puzzled. "I- I mean, I see a girl with long blon—"

"Yes! THAT! Do you see, Andy?"

I shook my head no.

SB looked exasperated. "Itsi, repeat what you said!"

"What words? Blond hair and gray eyes?"

"No, after that."

"I see a g-girl with long hair?"

Electricity shot up my spine. Did she say she _saw a girl?_

"Yes!" SB shouted. "Itsi sees through your skin! She knows you are a girl!"

"What do you mean?" Stitches asked, pointing a finger at SB. "Andy knows she's a girl! I mean, how could you miss those boobs?"

"Excuse me?" I said, instinctively covering myself with my arms. "I-I'm a guy, you idiot!" The lie burned in my throat, but I had to keep it up.

Stitches walked up to me and pointed to my chest. "If you're a guy, then you have a serious case of man-boobs, dude." She stretched out her arms, making it look like she was going to poke my chest. But her fingers stopped a few centimeters short.

Stitches' eyes widened. "My fingers just went through your boobs."

Blushing, I hissed out "You aren't even touching me. How can they go through me?"

SB cleared her throat. "She sees you in your girl form, _Annabeth_. You had breasts as a female, so her fingers _would _be touching them."

At first I was going to ask how she knew that I was a girl in the first place, and how she knew my real name, but then I remembered. She's a _witch_.

"Oh, Pluto, this is mind-blowing," Stitches said. "A-and your hair…?" She reached out, touching the air somewhere above my right shoulder, where I would have had hair if Riley hadn't turned me into a man.

"I-I am _supposed _to be touching your hair…I can _see _my fingers go through them…but I feel absolutely nothing…"

I was getting really weirded out. I stepped back, and Stitches dropped her hand.

SB took out an old camera, the kind that produced a paper picture and you had to wait a few minutes to be able to see the image for. She snapped a photo of me, and a paper came out of the front. She waved it around for a few minutes, and when the picture finally appeared, she handed the photo to Stitches.

She grabbed it, and stared. Her eyes widened in a way that would have made me laugh were we not in the middle of a pretty serious situation.

"Wow…Andy… all-all this time I thought it was short for Andrea or something…but you're pretending to be a dude…"

I crossed my arms. "I'm not exactly _pretending _to be one. _Normal _people, unlike yourself, see a boy named Andrew. I was all but _thrown_ into this body, girl."

"Well," SB said as she stretched, "get out of here. Andy, Itsi will tell whenever you look more like a boy to her. That is what Galatea thought would be useful. Itsi is like…a timer. The more you look like a boy to her, the less time you have to fix up a potion to turn yourself back. Now, I'm done talking to you two. Please ask Ron to enter the room, yes?"

I was about to leave the room when SB silently called Stitches back. She whispered something to her, which I probably shouldn't have overheard, but I did anyways. She said:

"Don't trust your little brother."

**Me: I hope that last part made sense.  
Grover: I'm still kind of confused.  
Me: I know… I just couldn't explain it better. Itsi sees Annabeth as a girl, and that's all you need to understand.  
Grover: O-okay…I guess.  
Me: I have a question to ask all of you. Just a simple question that I wish to see answered in your reviews: **_**Coke, Pepsi**_**, or **_**neither**_**?  
Grover: And if you have time, please tell us why?  
Me: I'm a Pepsi person myself.  
Grover: Sorry, Itsi, I like Coke.**


	26. You Have Been Dismissed

**Me: Yo!  
Hazel: Hi there! Here are the results for the question asked in the previous chapter: **_**Coke, Pepsi**_**, or **_**neither**_**?  
Me: I can't believe it! Some people **_**actually answered! **_**What we got: Coke-4, Pepsi-1, lemonade-2, coffee-1.**

**~Percy's POV~**

When…Spongebobeniqua…was done telling Ron his special news, she immediately dismissed us.

"Go. Finish your quest," she proclaimed from her door.

Daniela shoved her way through me and Annabeth, and got in Spongebobeniqua's face. "OH, NO! What about _my _news? I am part of this group too!"

Spongebobeniqua simply shut the door, smashing Daniela's nose.

As Daniela kicked and squirmed when Itsi tried to stop the blood from gushing from her nose, Annabeth gathered us around her and told us about what Spo—I mean, what SB had told her and Itsi.

When she finished, there was a moment of silence as the information sunk in.

"Okay," Thalia mumbled, "so she's going to tell us when your spirit becomes more…accustomed to the body you're in right now..?"

Annabeth nodded. She rubbed her chin, and gasped lightly.

I asked what was up, and Annabeth responded with "I think I need to start shaving."

And she was right. The first signs of stubble appeared on her chin and under her nose. That's all I got to see, though, because Annabeth stuffed her face in the duck. I heard a muffled "My body is getting more and more used to this."

She was right. We needed to get a move on.

After a while, Annabeth looked up and sighed deeply. "Whatever. Ron, you still have the baby girl?"

Ron raised the baby in his arms. "Yeah, I think it may be time to feed her, too."

She nodded, but it seemed she wasn't really listening. She looked at all of us in turn, and sighed again.

"Well, before we head off, we have to fix this problem we have."

Clarisse frowned. "We have too many people in our group."

"I agree," Annabeth whispered, and tilted her head back. "Who is willing to leave the group?"

Nobody raised their hands.

"Fine then, you're making me choose. There are…" Her head bobbed as she counted all of us in her head, "eight of us…right?"

We all nodded.

"Hey!" someone shouted.

"Nine, plus Nero," Annabeth added, smiling a little. "We were pushing our luck with four people, but nine quest members is just asking for trouble. We can't have a group this big. Thalia, Clarisse, Ron, Sti- I mean—Itsi, Daniela, Cujo, Percy and I..."

"Plus the baby girl," Thalia added.

"Ten, then."

Itsi looked down at Daniela. "You're staying here."

Daniela's eyes got as big as saucers. "NO…no! Why me? You guys don't need a stupid dog! Get rid of Cujo!"

"We're leaving you here with SB. You were given to me when your momma died, so in a weird way, I am like your legal guardian. My mom isn't here anymore, so no one else but SB can take care of you. You're staying here, you little gremlin!"

They began to argue in Spanish, and Clarisse had to smack the two to make them be quiet.

Clarisse barked out "You two! Chill! It's Andy's decision, as quest leader, to dismiss anyone."

All eyes turned to her. Annabeth rubbed her chin again, and gestured at Daniela. "Listen, I think it's better if you stay here. I don't want to get in your 'family matters', so I'm taking Itsi's side, since, yeah, she's the only one here with real authority over you."

Daniela froze. Annabeth looked at Itsi. "Do you really think SB can take care of her until we come back?"

"Sure, she will. I'll have to pay her, though, but you know, whatever."

Annabeth motioned for Itsi to take Daniela now. Itsi grabbed her arm and dragged her back to SB's mansion.

I looked at Cujo. "She was right, you know. Daniela, I mean. We don't need Cujo. Not really."

Annabeth thought about it. "You think SB will be ok taking care of a dog as well?"

Ron sniffed. "Probably. Most of those people in the party over at SB's house acted worse than animals. One more couldn't hurt. We may as well leave the baby with her too. We can't…we can't endanger the baby, either."

"Wait, guys." Clarisse interrupted.

"What?" Annabeth asked, but Clarisse quickly shushed her. She seemed…to be listening to something.

I counted thirty seconds when Clarisse unfroze from her position, nodding as though she had agreed to something, even though none of us present had spoken a word.

"My father—Ares—just told me to keep the dog. He said that Cujo will help us locate another ride."

"Locate...a ride?" Thalia said, not getting it.

"Yeah, he probably meant that Cujo'll sniff out a certain car or something."

I thought about this. "Wait guys, why are we going to listen to Ares? I mean, for all we know, Cujo is infected with rabies and Ares knows that soon he will attack!"

Thalia snorted, and Annabeth shook her head. "Percy, he's a god, so maybe should listen to him. I doubt he still hates you as much as when we were twelve. And besides," she grunted, looking up at the sky, "it's all we have. We don't exactly have clear instructions on where we're going. Just 'head west.' We _will _need a ride at some point in time. Might as well get one now, _right?_"

I hate it when she's right.

"It has been decided then; we keep the dog."

Clarisse leaned against a wall. "But then we will have only gotten rid of _one _person. Nine people…well, that's still _way_ too much. Who else do we get rid of?"

On their own, my eyes slid over to Thalia.

She caught me looking. "What?"

Clarisse seemed to agree with what I was thinking. "If Percy was looking at you for the reason I think, then I agree with him. You're not fit for this quest anymore. I mean, look at you; you're shaking, coughing, sweaty, and really pale from the over-exertion you cause yourself just by _walking_."

I looked at Thalia in the eye, pleading her to listen. "You're sick, Thals. I don't know why, and I suspect that SB told you why. But I do know this: If your problem worsens, then pretty soon, you _will _collapse. Imagine we're fighting something. We're surrounded. Suddenly, you pass out."

Thalia shut her eyes and weakly covered her ears. Clarisse continued for me, speaking louder so Thalia could hear. "If we're surrounded, it's going to be hard to get to you and make sure you're all right. You might cause problems."

"Worse if we don't find out you pass out at all," Ron added. We all nodded. "I don't know you as much as there other three," he pointed at Clarisse, Annabeth and me, "but I would really hate to lose a good…comrade."

Thalia coughed into her hand, and shook her head. "No, I'm going with you guys. I'm not going to join this quest and then drop out halfway. If I die, that's too bad for me. I'm going—" she stopped to cough—"with you. Please, Annabeth."

We were putting a lot of pressure on Annabeth. She scratched her hair awkwardly, and for the billionth time, she sighed. "OK, ok. We'll only leave Daniela."

"Yay!" Ron whisper-shouted, because he didn't want to wake the baby. "No one suggested I leave! I feel so special!"

"Yeah, well, we _do _need an adult with us to look like a guardian," Annabeth replied with a smile on her face.

We waited for Itsi to start heading out. When she finally returned, we began walking west. We put Cujo out in front, because of what Ares had told Clarisse.

Itsi sped up to match my pace.

"I really hope we survive this," she said, "so I can take Daniela on some easy quest. That way, she won't be so mad at me."

I nodded. "We'll make it. This quest can't be too big, right? I mean, it's just getting ingredients for a reversal potion."

"Ah, I see," Itsi said. "Not something someone will really have a reason to stop, huh?"

I nodded again, but one the inside, I knew that was wrong. That guy, Nameless, he seemed like he was against this quest. Maybe this quest was… Nah, it can't be more than just returning Annabeth back into a girl.

"Hey, Percy-cat, you know any easy quests I could take Daniela on?"

My eye twitched at my incredibly cheesy nickname. "Not really."

"What about getting golden apples from…the garden of the Hesperides? Easy right?"

"NO!" Thalia, Annabeth and I screamed.

"What?!" Itsi backed away, spooked.

"NOT a golden apple from _that_ garden!" Annabeth choked out.

The three of us shared a look. Luke had gone on that quest a long time ago. Ladon the guardian dragon had given him that horrible scar.

"Ok! Jeez! Sometimes you guys can be really weird."

A chuckle escaped Clarisse.

I grinned. "Yeah, well, when it comes to _us, _'weird' freaks out and starts screaming."

**Me: Oh, globs, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the baby girl.  
Hazel: Don't kill her off!  
Me: I kind of have no other choice!  
Hazel: Think of other things! Don't kill babies! Not even fictional ones!  
Me: Meh!**


	27. Annabeth Mud Wrestles with an Old Man

**Me: About freaking time! I had lost my flashdrive, which is where all of my documents were! And then I found them! Yay!  
Jason: Which is why she took a long time to update.  
Me: I think that was implied, Jason. Yes, that is why I took a long time.  
Jason: Before you start reading, Itsi just wanted to tell you guys that this chapter is dedicated to Alice'sLover, a brilliant FanFiction friend of hers.  
Me: Yeah! This is for you, Ace!**

**~Annabeth's POV~**

I looked up at the sky.

It had only been a few hours since we left SB's house, and the weather was beginning to change. Storm clouds were rolling in.

"Oklahoma weather," Stitches mumbled to herself. "You don't like the weather? Just wait a minute."

"Okay, guys," I said, "we'd better find a place to crash." I pointed at the sky. "We don't want to get soaked."

"Like last time," Ron added solemnly.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Cujo barked. I tried to calm him down, thinking that it was just the weather making him jumpy. My father had a dog once, because my brothers had convinced him to get them one. He would howl during thunderstorms because they made him nervous. My stepmother would whisper soothing words to him, and he would come down and allow us some sleep. I tried to do that, tried to whisper calming words.

But Cujo wouldn't calm down, and eventually began pulling on the leash Clarisse was holding.

"I think he's found a ride."

Excitedly, I nodded, and released him from his leash. Instantly he took off barking, and began leading us to what _could be_ our ride to the west. Every few seconds, he stopped to let us catch up.

Percy was soon running by my side, already getting tired. "What do you think…our ride will be?" he asked me as he wiped some sweat off his forehead.

Worried, I looked at him carefully. Percy doesn't get tired easily. Maybe he was already tired because of all the walking we had been doing. "I have no clue, but don't get your hopes up. Chances are it will _not _be a sports car."

Percy gave a weak laugh, but he stopped and slowed down. I slowed with him, and looked in the direction he was staring at.

Cujo was pointing his nose in the direction of:

"An old man," Stitches said unhappily.

The man had been leaning on some kind of tree. He looked like Ron; a smelly old hobo that seriously needed food. He was wearing ancient warrior armor, or at least what seemed to _look _like ancient armor. The insanely long beard on his chin seemed to have enough hair to cover up the bald spot on his head. He eyed us wearily, which made him even uglier than before, and stood up shakily.

"Who you callin' an old man?"

Ron backed away, shielding the baby from this old man's ugliness. "Poor man is in denial. He doesn't know he's as old as the Oracle of Delphi."

I stood there stunned, wondering why Ron was acting like he knew how old the Oracle of Delphi was.

"You lookin' to steal me horses?" he asked, and pulled out a rusty old sword.

I backed up quickly, raising my hands to show him I meant no harm.

"Hey hey hey hey," Percy cried out. "No one said anything about your horses, man!"

That's when it hit me. I pulled Percy towards me. "Percy! Cujo was leading us to the horses! The horses!"

Realization dawned on his face. "Oh," he simply said, and turned to the old man. "How much for the horses?"

"Percy?" I was pretty surprised. "The man might catch on that we need those horses and go ridiculously high with the price," I hissed at him.

"Nothin'! There ain't nothin' you'd be able to offer that would get me to give you these here horses!" He gestured towards an old-looking barn not too far away from where we were standing. That's probably where they were. "Go away, you darned mortals!"

_Mortals? That definitely means he's from the ancient past, _I thought. I scanned my memory for a man with special horses in the stories Chiron told me.

"D-Diomedes? Is your name Diomedes?" I asked him, my hands still raised. If he was Diomedes, then we were pretty much screwed.

He made this weird sound, which I guessed was just his laugh.

Ok, so his name _wasn't _Diomedes. I closed my eyes, desperately trying to remember someone else that had horses worth fighting for.

"Achilles! Your name is Achilles!"

The man gave me an _are-you-kidding-me look_.

Percy stepped closer to the man. "Listen, sir, we'll give the horses right back. We need a ride to the west. You called us mortals, right? So you must be, you know, from back _then_. We're children of the gods!"

"Sure, and I was born yesterday. I have always been able to sniff out demigods, and I can only smell human on you. _Smelly _human."

Percy gave me a sideways look. "Ron. His…smell…it's rubbed off on us."

I thought we'd agreed Ron was some kind of demigod, but whatever, I just nodded.

"I have no time for this! Go away, or fight me!" The old man hollered.

Percy and I pulled out our weapons. I saw Clarisse push Ron, the baby, Thalia and Itsi towards the barn where the horses were.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and as if he had been waiting for that, the old man attacked Percy, swinging his sword in a sideways arc.

Percy blocked and swung as well. "Just give us your horses, man!"

The man grunted, and switched over to me. He swung his sword quickly, and all I could do was block. I needed to get closer if I wanted to cause damage with my dagger, but every time I got closer to him, he backed up. "You can't have me horses! They ain't even mine! I'm just takin' care of them!"

I felt something hit my nose, and sure enough, it was raining.

The old man turned as Percy swung, thinking he was too busy fighting me. I made a desperate move and threw the dagger blindly at the man. The blade hit his forehead, and blood gushed down onto his eyes. By this time, the rain was already coming down hard, so the blood and water mixed and kept the man from seeing clearly.

Puddles were starting to form at the two guys' feet. Percy took advantage of that and used his abilities to splash the man in the face. The old man tried to regain his balance, but he failed and fell on his back into the mud.

I ran to get my dagger, as Percy stood over the old man and pointed Riptide at his throat. "I can't believe that I'm doing this just for horses," he muttered loudly, and then aloud he spoke to the old man. "Your horses. Give them to us, and you live."  
The old man roared and pushed the blade away from his face with his bare hand. He headbutted Percy, and both fell into a puddle that had been behind Percy. "Achilles trusted me with Balios and Xanthos! I am the only one who can take care of them! The only one who can control their fury!"

It was now incredibly dark, the only source of light being the few lightning bolts that appeared every now and then.

The old man found his sword in the mud and jabbed with it. Percy cried out, and held his arm. He pulled his hand away, and blood gushed out.

I sloshed through the mud and tackled the old man. We wrestled on the ground, me trying to bring my dagger down onto his throat, and him trying to not let that happen.

We stopped rolling, and the man was on top of me. He ripped the dagger out of my hands and turned it against me.

I held his hands, holding them up. The old man cackled, and moved his head over. Rain began hitting my eyes, and I had to close them to keep from going momentarily blind. Though I suppose I was going to be blind either way, seeing as I had my eyes closed.

The rain came down harder, to the point where every raindrop felt like a rock being thrown down at me.

"Balios and Xanthos need me! If you had just listened to me about not wanting to give you the horses, you could have found a ride by now, I suppose."

Or at least, that's what I _think _he said. The sound of rain splashing down onto the already wet ground kind of drowned him out. But he must have said something like that.

I risked opening my eyes, and that's when a bolt of lightning flashed through the sky in a beautiful arc. That's when it came to me! Balios and Xanthos were the horses Achilles had owned! But if this old man said he wasn't Hercules, then he was…?

"Patroclus! Your name is Patroclus! You fed and groomed Achilles' horses!"

This seemed to strengthen him, and he pushed down as much as he could so that the very tip of my blade touched my forehead. He pushed again, and the tip poked my forehead and penetrated a little bit.

I thought I was a goner, when I heard Percy shout out "Yaaaaarrrrgh!" Percy pushed Patroclus off in a fury and they both fell in the mud puddle next to me.

Percy punched Patroclus until it seemed like he wasn't struggling anymore.

Percy rolled off of him and sighed. "I think he's out cold." He was wading in the mud, looking for Riptide, when he pulled out Patroclus' rusty old sword.

"Keeping this," he muttered, and put it aside as he continued searching for Riptide.

Clarisse walked back to us from the barn, and I must say, she looked downright evil. Her hair covered her face in wet strands, and the way she was holding her spear…

"Do we kill him?" She asked when she reached us. She poised her spear over the heart of old Patroclus.

Percy wiped his muddy face with his muddy hand, and coughed. "Nah. He was just doing his duty, I guess. While we were wrestling, he told me that Achilles had told him to meet up here with his horses. All he wanted was to keep them from getting stolen so that he could give them back. Can't really blame him, right? The least he deserves is a cold, so we'll leave him out here."

I heard a bark in the distance, and remembered that Clarisse had led the others into the abandoned barn where Patroclus had kept the horses.

"You know," Percy said, "Itsi could have fought. The fight would have lasted less of Clarisse and Itsi had helped." He gave Clarisse a pointed look.

"Hey, I had to keep the baby and Ron out of the rain. And Thalia would have gotten worse if she'd stayed in the rain." She crossed her arms. "Besides, Itsi doesn't have a weapon."

Percy raised his eyebrows. "I can fix that," he said as he capped Riptide and picked up the rusty sword. It turned into a horsewhip.

"Mist mode," Percy said. He stuck it in my backpack, and we began walking towards the barn.

The rain was beginning to stop. As we neared the barn, I noticed it wasn't in a _terrible _state. The only thing wrong was that the red paint was peeling.

Well, there was also the problem that there was no door. I could see everyone inside.

I saw two great stallions resting near the back.

Ron attracted our attention to himself and put a finger to his lips. He pointed at Stitches holding the sleeping baby.

_How_ a baby could sleep during a thunderstorm like the one that had been raging outside was beyond me.

As we cleaned our wounds up, I checked out the horses from a safe distance.

"Balios and Xanthos. All this trouble for you two," I whispered.

"Look, Annabeth," Percy said, pointing at something a few feet in front of us. "A chariot."

I looked at it. I wasn't really impressed, since it was just as rusty as the sword that belonged to Patroclus. And it wasn't even big enough for all of us to fit.

Seemingly reading my mind, Percy nudged me and said "Hey, it may not be big enough, but…it's all we have, right? We'll make it work." Percy continued dressing the large cut he had received.

I got up, and decided to take a look at the horses. They were white horses, bright as Chiron's behind. I wasn't very sure about their health, because I'm no horse expert, but _to the eye_ they seemed like they were strong and healthy.

Thalia pulled out an apple from her pack and handed it to me.

"Feed it. Who knows when that creepy old man last fed them?"

"His name is Patroclus. And yeah, maybe I should." I held the apple up to the horse closest to me, and it took a large bite.

It whinnied, and looked so content, it could have told me thank you.

"Huh, huh, derp! Thank you!"

My breath escaped my body.

"Derpy derp. Thank you," the horse repeated.

I stared at the horse, and without looking at Clarisse, I asked her "Did the horse just talk?"

**Me: Yes, Annabeth/Andrew, the horse just talked. Considering the life she lives, she shouldn't have been surprised by a talking horse.  
Jason: Now, a **_**singing **_**horse, now **_**that **_**would impress me!  
Me: Yeah! We should get Blackjack to sing in the next Author's Note!  
Jason: But only Percy would be able to hear that. Blackjack can only speak telepathically with Percy because he's the son of the Sea God.  
Me: *thinks* Does that mean you can speak telepathically with eagles because you're the son of Zeus?  
Jason: I will ignore that question and beg everyone to review. I beg you, review.**


End file.
